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THE WORKS

0/ VOLTAIRE

A CONTEMPORARY
VERSION

A CRITIQUE AND BIOGRAPHY

By Lord Morley

Notes by Tobias Smollett

Revised and Alodernized

New Translations by WiLLlAM F. Fleming

and an Introduction b\'

Oliver H. G. Leigh

Twenty-two Volumes
NEW YORK

DINGWALL- ROCK, Lfii.

19 2 7

Copyright 1901
By E. R. DUMONT

Owned by

DINGWALL-ROCK, Ltd.

NEW YORK

Printed in the United States of America

VOLTAIRE

A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY

Vol. IV — Part 1

A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY.

CANNIBALS.

SECTION I.

We have spoken of love. It is hard to pass from
people kissing to people eating one another. It is,
however, but too true that there have been cannibals.
We have found them in America ; they are, perhaps,
still to be found ; and the Cyclops were not the only
individuals in antiquity who sometimes fed on human
flesh. Juvenal relates that among the Egyptians —
that wise people, so renowned for their laws — those
pious worshippers of crocodiles and onions — the
Tentyrites ate one of their enemies who had fallen
into their hands. He does not tell this tale on hear-
say; the crime was committed almost before his
eyes ; he was then in Egypt, and not far from Ten-
tyra. On this occasion he quotes the Gascons and
the Saguntines, who formerly fed on the flesh of
their countrymen.

In 1725 four savages were brought from the Mis-
sissippi to Fontainebleau, with whom I had the honor
of conversing. There v.as among them a lady of the
country, whom I asked if she had eaten men; she
answered, with great simplicity that she had. I ap-
peared somewhat scandalized; on which she ex-

5

6 Philosophical

cused herself by saying that it was better to eat one's
dead enemy than to leave him to be devoured by
wild beasts, and that the conquerors deserved to have
the preference. We kill our neighbors in battles, or
skirmishes ; and, for the meanest consideration, pro-
vide meals for the crows and the worms. There is
the horror; there is the crime. What matters it,
when a man is dead, whether he is eaten by a soldier,
or by a dog and a crow ?

We have more respect for the dead than for the
living. It would be better to respect both the one and
the other. The nations called polished have done
right in not putting their vanquished enemies on the
spit ; for if we were allowed to eat our neighbors, we
should soon eat our countrymen, which would be
rather unfortunate for the social virtues. But pol-
ished nations have not always been so ; they were all
for a long time savage ; and, in the infinite number
of revolutions which this globe has undergone, man-
kind have been sometimes numerous and sometimes
scarce. It has been with human beings as it now
is with elephants, lions, or tigers, the race of which
has very much decreased. In times when a country
was but thinly inhabited by men, they had few arts ;
they were hunters. The custom of eating what they
had killed easily led them to treat their enemies like
their stags and their boars. It was superstition that
caused human victims to be immolated ; it was neces-
sity that caused them to be eaten.

Which is the greater crime — to assemble piously

Dictionary. 7

together to plunge a knife into the heart of a girl
adorned with fillets, or to eat a worthless man who
has been killed in our own defence?

Yet we have many more instances of girls and
boys sacrificed than of girls and boys eaten. Almost
every nation of w^iich we know anything has sacri-
ficed boys and girls. The Jews immolated them.
This was called the Anathema ; it was a real sacri-
fice ; and in Leviticus it is ordained that the living
souls which shall be devoted shall not be spared ; but
it is not in any manner prescribed that they shall be
eaten ; this is only threatened. Moses tells the Jews
that unless they observe his ceremonies they shall
not only have the itch, but the mothers shall eat their
children. It is true that in the time of Ezekiel the
Jews must have been accustomed to eat human flesh ;
for, in his thirty-ninth chapter, he foretells to them
that God will cause them to eat, not only the horses
of their enemies, but moreover the horsemen and the
rest of the warriors. And, indeed, why should not
the Jews have been cannibals ? It was the only thing
wanting to make the people of God the most abom-
inable people upon earth.

SECTION II.

In the essay on the "Manners and Spirit of Na-
tions" we read the following singular passage :
"Herrera assures us that the Mexicans ate the human
victims whom they immolated. Most of the first
travellers and missionaries say that the Brazilians,
the Caribbees, the Iroquois, the Hurons, and some

8 Philosophical

other tribes, ate their captives taken in war ; and they
do not consider this as the practice of some individ-
uals alone, but as a national usage. So many writers,
ancient and modern, have spoken of cannibals, that
it is difficult to deny their existence. A hunting
people, like the Brazilians or the Canadians, not
always having a certain subsistence, may sometimes
become cannibals. Famine and revenge accustomed
them to this kind of food; and while in the most
civilized ages we see the people of Paris devouring
the bleeding remains of Marshal d'Ancre, and the
people of The Hague eating the heart of the grand
pensionary, De Witt, wc ought not to be surprised
that a momentary outrage among us has been con-
tinual among savages.

"The most ancient books we have leave no room
to doubt that hunger has driven men to this excess.
The prophet Ezekiel, according to some commen-
tators, promises to the Hebrews from God that if
they defend themselves well against the king of
Persia, they shall eat of 'the flesh of horses and of
mighty men.'

"Marco Polo says that in his time in a part of
Tartary the magicians or priests — it was the same
thing — had the privilege of eating the flesh of crim-
inals condemned to death. All this is shocking to
the feelings; but the picture of humanity must
often have the same effect.

"How can it have been that nations constantly
separated from one another have united in so horrible

Dictionary. 9

a custom? Must we believe that it is not so absolutely
opposed to human nature as it appears to be? It is
certain that it has been rare, but it is equally certain
that it has existed. It is not known that the Tartars
and the Jews often ate their fellow creatures. During
the sieges of Sancerre and Paris, in our religious
wars, hunger and despair compelled mothers to feed
on the flesh of their children. The charitable Las
Casas, bishop of Chiapa, says that this horror was
committed in America, only by some nations among
whom he had not travelled. Dampierre assures us
that he never met with cannibals ; and at this day
there are not, perhaps, any tribes which retain this
horrible custom."

Americus Vespucius says in one of his letters that
the Brazilians were much astonished when he made
them understand that for a long time the Europeans
had not eaten their prisoners of war.

According to Juvenal's fifteenth satire, the Gas-
cons and the Spaniards had been guilty of this bar-
barity. He himself witnessed a similar abomination
in Egypt during the consulate of Junius. A quarrel
happening between the inhabitants of Tentyra and
those of Ombi, they fought ; and an Ombian having
fallen into the hands of the Tentyrians, they had
him cooked, and ate him, all but the bare bones. But
he does not say that this was the usual custom ; on
the contrary, he speaks of it as an act of more than
ordinary fury.

The Jesuit Charlevoix, whom I knew very well,

lO Philosophical

and who was a man of great veracity, gives us clearly
to understand in his "History of Canada," in which
country he resided thirty years, that all the nations
of northern America were cannibals ; since he re-
marks, as a thing very extraordinary, that in 171 1
the Acadians did not eat men.

The Jesuit Brebeuf relates that in 1640 the first
Iroquois that was converted, having unfortunately
got drunk with brandy, was taken by the Hurons,
then at war with the Iroquois. The prisoner, bap-
tized by Father Brebeuf by the name of Joseph, was
condemned to death. He was put to a thousand tor-
tures, which he endured, singing all the while, ac-
cording to the custom of his country. They finished
by cutting oiT a foot, a hand, and lastly his head;
after which the Hurons put all the members into a
cauldron, each one partook of them, and a piece was
offered to Father Brebeuf.

Charlevoix speaks in another place of twenty-two
Hurons eaten by the Iroquois. It cannot, then, be
doubted, that in more countries than one, human
nature has reached this last pitch of horror ; and this
execrable custom must be of the highest antiquity ;
for we see in the Holy Scriptures that the Jews were
threatened with eating their children if they did not
obey their laws. The Jews are told not only that
they shall have the itch, and that their v/ives shall
give themselves up to others, but also that they shall
eat their sons and dau<:yhters in anofuish and devasta-
tion ; that thev shall contend with one another for

Dictionary. 1 1

the eating of their children ; and that the husband
will not give to his wife a morsel of her son, because,
he will say, he has hardly enough for himself.

Some very bold critics do indeed assert that the
Book of Deuteronomy was not composed until after
the siege of Samaria by Benhadad, during which, it
is said in the Second Book of Kings, that mothers
ate their children. But these critics, in considering
Deuteronomy as a book written after the siege of
Samaria, do but verify this terrible occurrence.
Others assert that it could not happen as it is related
hi the Second Book of Kings. It is there said : "And
as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall
[of Samaria] , there cried a woman unto him, saying,
'Help, my lord, O king.' And he said, 'If the Lord
do not help thee, whence shall I help thee ? out of the
barn floor? or out of the wine-press?' And the
king said unto her, 'What aileth thee ?' And she an-
swered, 'This woman said unto me, give thy son,
that we may eat him to-day, and we shall eat my son
to-morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him ;
and I said unto her on the next day, 'Give thy son,
that w^e may eat him,' and she hath hid her son.' "

These censors assert that it is not likely that while
King Benhadad was besieging Samaria, King Joram
passed quietly by the wall, or upon the wall, to settle
differences between Samaritan women. It is still
less likely that one child should not have satisfied
two women for two days. There must have been
enough to feed them for four days at least. But let

12 Philosophical

these critics reason as they may, we must believe
that fathers and mothers ate their children during
the siege of Samaria, since it is expressly foretold
in Deuteronomy. The same thing happened at the
siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar; and this,
too, was foretold by Ezekiel.

Jeremiah exclaims, in his "Lamentations" : "Shall
the women eat their fruit, and children of a span
long?" And in another place: "The hands of the
pitiful women have sodden their own children."
Here may be added the words of Baruch: "Man
has eaten the flesh of his son and of his daughter."

This horror is repeated so often that it cannot but
be true. Lastly, we know the story related in
Josephus, of the woman who fed on the flesh of her
son when Titus was besieging Jerusalem. The book
attributed to Enoch, cited by St. Jude, says that the
giants born from the commerce of the angels With the
daughters of men were the first cannibals.

In the eighth homily attributed to St. Clement, St.
Peter, who is made to speak in it, says that these same
giants quenched their thirst with human blood and
ate the flesh of their fellow creatures. Hence re-
sulted, adds the author, maladies until then un-
known; monsters of all kinds sprung up on the
earth ; and then it was that God resolved to drown all
human kind. All this shows us how universal was
the reigning opinion of the existence of cannibals.

What St. Peter is made to say in St. Clement's
homily has a palpable affinity with the story of

Dictionary. 13

Lycaon, one of the oldest of Greek fables, and which
we find in the first book of Ovid's "Metamor-
phoses."

The "Relations of the Indies and China," written
in the eighth century by two Arabs, and translated
by the Abbe Renaudot, is not a book to which implicit
credit should be attached ; far from it ; but we must
not reject all these two travellers say, especially
when their testimony is corroborated by that of other
authors who have merited some belief. They tell
us that there are in the Indian Sea islands peopled
with blacks who ate men; they call these islands
Ramni.

Marco Polo, who had not read the works of these
two Arabs, says the same thing four hundred years
after them. Archbishop Navarette, who was after-
wards a voyager in the same seas, confirms this ac-
count : "Los Europeos que cogcn, es constawte que
vivos se los van comicndo."

Texeira asserts that the people of Java ate human
flesh, which abominable custom they had not left off
more than two hundred years before his time. He
adds that they did not learn milder manners until
they embraced Mahometanism.

The same thing has been said of the people of
Pegu, of the Kaffirs, and of several other African
nations. Marco Polo, whom we have just now cited,
says that in some Tartar hordes, when a criminal had
been condemned to death they made a meal of him :
"Hanno costoro un hestiale e orribile costume, che

14 Philosophical

quando alcimo e guidicato a morte, lo tolgono, e cuo-
cono, e mangian' selo."

What is more extraordinary and incredible is that
the two Arabs attributed to the Chinese what Marco
Polo says of some of the Tartars : that, "in general,
the Chinese eat all who have been killed." This
abomination is so repugnant to Chinese manners,
that it cannot be believed. Father Parennin has re-
futed it by saying that it is unworthy of refutation.

It must, however, be observed that the eighth cen-
tury, the time when these Arabs wrote their travels,
was one of those most disastrous to the Chinese. Two
hundred thousand Tartars passed the great wall,
plundered Pekin, and everywhere spread the most
horrible desolation. It is very likely that there was
then a great famine, for China was as populous as it
is now ; and some poor creatures among the lowest
of the people might eat dead bodies. What interest
could these Arabians have in inventing so disgusting
a fable? Perhaps they, like most other travellers,
took a particular instance for a national custom.

Not to go so far for examples, we have one in our
own country, in the very province in which I write ;
it is attested by our conqueror, our master, Julius
Caesar. He was besieging Alexia, in the Auxois.
The besieged being resolved to defend themselves to
the last extremity, and wanting provisions, a great
council was assembled, in which one of the chiefs,
named Critognatus, proposed that the children should
be eaten one after another to sustain the strength of

Dictionary. 1 5

the combatants. His proposal was carried by a ma-
jority of voices. Nor is this all ; Critognatus in his
harangue tells them that their ancestors had had re-
course to the same kind of sustenance in the war with
the Cimbri and Teutones.

We will conclude with the testimony of Mon-
taigne. Speaking of what was told him by the com-
panions of Villegagnon, returned from Brazil, and
of what he had seen in France, he certifies that the
Brazilians ate their enemies killed in war, but mark
what follows: "Is it more barbarous to eat a man
when dead than to have him roasted by a slow fire,
or torn to pieces by dogs and swine, as is yet fresh
in our memories — and that not between ancient ene-
mies, but among neighbors and fellow-citizens — and,
which is worse, on pretence of piety and religion?"
What a question for a philosopher like Montaigne !
Then, if Anacreon and Tibullus had been Iroquois,
they would have eaten men ! Alas ! alas !

SECTION III.

Well ; two Englishmen have sailed round the
world. They have discovered that New Holland is
an island larger than Europe, and that men still eat
one another there, as in New Zealand. Whence come
this race ? supposing that they exist. Are they de-
scended from the ancient Egyptians, from the ancient
people of Ethiopia, from the Africans, from the In-
dians— or from the vultures, or the wolves ? What
a contrast between Marcus Aurelius, or Epictetus,
and the cannibals of New Zealand ! Yet they have

1 6 Philosophical

the same organs, they are alike human beings. We
have already treated on this property of the human
race ; it may not be amiss to add another paragraph.

The following are St. Jerome's own words in one
of his letters : "Quid loquar de ceteris nationihus,
quiim ipse adolescentulits in Gallia vidcrim Scotos,
gentcm Britannicam, humanis vesci carnibus, ct quum
per silvas poreorum greges pecudumque reperiant,
tajiien pastorum ttafes et fccminaruin papillas solere
abscindere et has solas ciborum delicias arbitrari?"
— "What shall I say of other nations ; when I my-
self, when young, have seen Scotchmen in Gaul, who,
though they might have fed on swine and other ani-
mals of the forest, chose rather to cut ofif the pos-
teriors of the youths and the breasts of the young
women, and considered them as the most delicious
food."

Pelloutier, who sought for everything that might
do honor to the Celts, took the pains to contradict
Jerome, and to maintain that his credulity had been
imposed on. But Jerome speaks very gravely, and of
what he sazv. We may, with deference, dispute with
a father of the church about what he has heard ; but
to doubt of what he has seen is going very far. After
all, the safest way is to doubt of everything, even of
what we have seen ourselves.

One word more on cannibalism. In a book which
has had considerable success among the well-dis-
posed we find the following, or words to the same
effect: "In Cromwell's time a woman who kept a

Dictionary. ly

tallow chandler's shop in Dublin sold excellent can-
dles, made of the fat of Englishmen. After some
time one of her customers complained that the can-
dles were not so good. 'Sir,' said the woman, 'it is
because we are short of Englishmen.' "

I ask which were the most guilty — tliose who as-
sassinated the English, or the poor woman who made
candles of their fat? And further, I ask which was
the greatest crime — to have Englishmen cooked for
dinner, or to use their tallow to give light at supper ?
It appears to me that the great evil is the being killed ;
it matters little to us whether, after death, we are
roasted on the spit or are made into candles. Indeed,
no well-disposed man can be unwilling to be useful
when he is dead.

CASTING (IN METAL).

There is not an ancient fable, not an old absurdity
which some simpleton will not revive, and that in a
magisterial tone, if it be but authorized by some
classical or theological writer.

Lycophron (if I remember rightly) relates that a
horde of robbers who had been justly condemned in
Ethiopia by King Actisanes to lose their ears and
noses, fled to the cataracts of the Nile and from
thence penetrated into the Sandy Desert, where they
at length built the temple of Jupiter Ammon.

Lycophron, and after him Theopompus, tells us

that these banditti, reduced to extreme want, having

neither shoes, nor clothes, nor utensils, nor bread,
Vol. 7 — 2

1 8 Philosophical

bethought themselves of raising a statue of gold to
an Egyptian god. This statue was ordered one even-
ing and made in the course of the night. A member
of the university much attached to Lycophron and
the Ethiopian robbers asserts that nothing was more
common in the venerable ages of antiquity than to
cast a statue of gold in one night, and afterwards
throw it into a fire to reduce it to an impalpable pow-
der, in order to be swallowed by a whole people.

But where did these poor devils, without breeches,
find so much gold? "What, sir!" says the man of
learning, "do you forget that they had stolen enough
to buy all Africa and that their daughters' ear-rings
alone were worth nine millions five hundred thousand
livres of our currency?"

Be it so. But for casting a statue a little prepara-
tion is necessary. M. Le Moine employed nearly two
years in casting that of Louis XV. "Oh ! but this
Jupiter Amnion was at most but three feet high.
Go to any pewterer ; will he not make you half a
dozen plates in a day ?"

Sir, a statue of Jupiter is harder to make than
pewter plates, and I even doubt whether your thieves
had wherewith to make plates so quickly, clever as
they might be at pilfering. It is not very likely that
they had the necessary apparatus ; th-^v had more
need to provide themselves with meal. I respect Ly-
cophron much, but this profound Greek and his yet-
more profound commentators know so little of the
arts — thev are so learned in all that is useless, and so

Dictionary. 19

ignorant in all that concerns the necessaries and con-
veniences of life, professions, trades, and daily occu-
pations that we will take this opportunity of inform-
ing them how a metal figure is cast. This is an
operation which they will find neither in Lycophron,
nor in Manetho, nor even in St. Thomas's dream.
I omit many other preparations which the encyclo-
paedists, especially M. Diderot, have explained much
better than I could do, in the work which must im-
mortalize their glory as well as all the arts. But to
form a clear idea of the process of this art the artist
must be seen at work. No one can ever learn in a
book to weave stockings, nor to polish diamonds, nor
to work tapestry. Arts and trades are learned only
by example and practice.

CATO.

ON SUICIDE, AND THE ABBE ST. CYRAn's BOOK LEGITI-
MATING SUICIDE.

The ingenious La Motte says of Cato, in one of

his philosophical rather than poetical odes :

Caton, d'tme dme plus cgale.

Sous rheureux vainqiteiir tie Pharsale,

Eut souffert que Rome piidt ;

Mats, incapable tie se rendre,

II n'eut pas la force d 'attendre

Un pardon qui riiumilidt.

Stern Cato, with more equal soul,

Had bowed to Csesar's wide control —

With Rome had to the conqueror bowed —

But that his spirit, rough and proud,

Had not the courage to await

A pardoned foe's too humbling fate.

It was, I believe, becau'^e Cato's soul was always

20 Philosophical

equal, and retained to the last its love for his country
and her laws that he chose rather to perish with her
than to crouch to the tyrant. He died as he had hved.
Incapable of surrendering ! And to whom ? To the
enemy of Rome — to the man who had forcibly robbed
the pubHc treasury in order to make war upon his
fellow-citizens and enslave them by means of their
own money. A pardoned foe! It seems as if La
Motte-Houdart were speaking of some revolted sub-
ject who might have obtained his majesty's pardon
by letters in chancery.

It seems rather absurd to say that Cato slew him-
self through weakness. None but a strong mind can
thus surmount the most powerful instinct of nature.
This strength is sometimes that of frenzy, but a
frantic man is not weak.

Suicide is forbidden amongst us by the canon law.
But the decretals, which form the jurisprudence of a
part of Europe, were unknown to Cato, to Brutus,
to Cassius, to the sublime Arria, to the Emperor
Otho, to Mark Antony, and the rest of the heroes
of true Rome, who preferred a voluntary death to a
life which they believed to be ignominious.

We, too, kill ourselves, but it is when we have lost
our money, or in the very rare excess of foolish pas-
sion for an unworthy object. I have known women
kill themselves for the most stupid men imaginable.
And sometimes we kill ourselves when we are in bad
health, which action is a real weakness.

Disgust with our own existence, weariness of our-

Dictionary. ai

selves is a malady which is likewise a cause of sui-
cide. The remedy is a little exercise, music, hunting,
the play, or an agreeable woman. The man who,
in a fit of melancholy, kills himself to-day, would
have wished to live had he waited a week.

I was almost an eye-witness of a suicide which
deserves the attention of all cultivators of physical
science. A man of a serious profession, of mature
age, of regular conduct, without passions, and above
indigence, killed himself on Oct. 17, 1769, and left
to the town council of the place where he was born, a
written apology for his voluntary death, which it
was thought proper not to publish lest it should en-
courage men to quit a life of which so much ill is
said. Thus far there is nothing extraordinary ; such
instances are almost every day to be met with. The
astonishing part of the story is this :

His brother and his father had each killed himself
at the same age. What secret disposition of organs,
what sympathy, what concurrence of physical laws,
occasions a father and his two sons to perish by their
own hands, and by the same kind of death, precisely
when they have attained such a year? Is it a disease
which unfolds itself successively in the different
members of a family — as we often see fathers and
children die of smallpox, consumption, or any other
complaint? Three or four generations have become
deaf or blind, gouty o^* scorbutic, at a predetermined
period.

Physical organization, of which moral is the off-

22 Philosophical

spring, transmits the same character from father to
son through a succession of ages. The Appii were
always haughty and inflexible, the Catos always se-
vere. The whole line of the Guises were bold, rash,
factious ; compounded of the most insolent pride,
and the most seductive politeness. From Francis
de Guise to him who alone and in silence went and
put himself at the head of the people of Naples, they
were all, in figure, in courage, and in turn of mind,
above ordinary men. I have seen wdiole length por-
traits of Francis de Guise, of the Balafre, and of his
son : they are all six feet high, with the same fea-
tures, the same courage and boldness in the forehead,
the eye, and the attitude.

This continuity, this series of beings alike is still
more observable in animals, and if as much care were
taken to perpetuate fine races of men as some nations
still take to prevent the mixing of the breeds of their
horses and hounds the genealogy would be written
in the countenance and displayed in the manners.
There have been races of crooked and of six-fmgered
people, as w^e see red-haired, thick-lipped, long-
nosed, and flat-nosed races.

But that nature should so dispose the organs of a
whole race that at a certain age each individual of
that family will have a passion for self-destruction
— this is a problem which all the sagacity of the most
attentive anatomists cannot resolve. The effect is
certainly all physical, but it belongs to occult physics.
Indeed, what principle is not occult ?

Dictionary. 23

We are not informed, nor is it likely that in the
time of CiEsar and the emperors the inhabitants of
Great Britain killed themselves as deliberately as
they now do, when they have the vapors which they
denominate the spleen.

On the other hand, the Romans, who never had
the spleen, did not hesitate to put themselves to
death. They reasoned, they were philosophers, and
the people of the island of Britain were not so. Now,
English citizens are philosophers and Roman citi-
zens are nothing. The Englishman quits this life
proudly and disdainfully when the whim takes him,
but the Roman must have an indidgeiitia in articiilo
mortis; he can neither live nor die.

Sir William Temple says that a man should de-
part when he has no longer any pleasure in remain-
ing. So died Atticus. Young women who hang and
drown themselves for love should then listen to the
voice of hope, for changes are as frequent in love as
in other affairs.

An almost infallible means of saving yourself
from the desire of self-destruction is always to have
something to do. Creech, the commentator on Lu-
cretius, marked upon his manuscripts: "N. B. Must
hang myself when I have finished." He kept his
word with himself that he might have the pleasure of
ending like his author. If he had undertaken a com-
mentary upon Ovid he would have lived longer.

Why have we fewer su.icides in the country than
in the towns? Because in the fields only the body

24 Philosophical

suffers ; in the town it is the mind. The laborer has
not time to be melancholy ; none kill themselves but
the idle — they who, in the eyes of the multitude, are
so happy.

I shall here relate some suicides that have hap-
pened in my own time, several of which have al-
ready been published in other works. The dead may
be made useful to the living :

A Brief Account of Some Singular Suicides.

Philip Mordaunt, cousin-german to the celebrated
earl of Peterborough — so well known in all the Eu-
ropean courts, and who boasted of havmg seen more
postillions and kings than any other man — was a
young man of twenty-seven, handsome, well made,
rich, of noble blood, with the highest pretensions,
and, which was more than all, adored jy his mis-
tress, yet Mordaunt was seized with a disgust for
life. He paid his debts, wrote to his friends, and
even made some verses on the occasion. He dis-
patched himself with a pistol without having given
any other reason than that his soul was tired of his
body and that when we are dissatisfied with our
abode we ought to quit it. It seemed that he wished
to die. because he was disgusted with his good for-
tune.

In 1726 Richard Smith exhibited a strange spec-
tacle to the world from a very different cause. Rich-
ard Smith was disgusted with real misfortune. He
had been rich, and he was poor; he had been in

Dictionary. 95

health, and he was infirm ; he had a wife with whom
he had naught but his misery to share; their only re-
maining property was a child in the cradle. Richard
Smith and Bridget Smith, with common consent,
having embraced each other tenderly and given their
infant the last kiss began with killing the poor child,
after which they lianged themselves to the posts of
their bed.

I do not know any other act of cold-blooded hor-
ror so striking as this. But the letter which these
unfortunate persons wrote to their cousin, Mr.
Brindley, before their death, is as singular as their
death itself. "We believe," say they, "that God will

forgive us We quit this life because we are

miserable — without resource, and we have done our
only son the service of killing him, lest he should

become as unfortunate as ourselves " It must

be observed that these people, after killing their son
through parental tenderness, wrote to recommend
their dog and cat to the care of a friend. It seems
they thought it easier to make a cat and dog happy
in this life than a child, and they would not be a bur-
den to their friends.

Lord Scarborough quitted this life in 1727, with
the same coolness as he had quitted his office of Mas-
ter of the Horse, He was reproached, in the House
of Peers, with taking the king's part because he had
a good place at court. "My lords," said he, "to prove
to you that my opinion is independent of my place, I
resign it this moment." He afterwards found him-

26 Philosophical

self in a perplexing dilemma between a mistress
whom he loved, but to whom he had promised noth-
ing, and a woman whom he esteemed, and to whom
he had promised marriage. He killed himself to es-
cape from his embarrassment.

These tragical stories which swarm in the English
newspapers, have made the rest of Europe think that,
in England, men kill themselves more willingly than
elsewhere. However, I know not but there are as
many madmen or heroes to be found in Paris as in
London. Perhaps, if our newspapers kept an exact
list of all who had been so infatuated as to seek their
own destruction, and so lamentably courageous as
to effect it, we should, in this particular, have the
misfortune to rival the English. But our journals
are more discreet. In such of them as are acknowl-
edged by the government private occurrences are
never exposed to public slander.

All I can ventiu-e to say with assurance is that
there is no reason to apprehend that this rage for
self-murder v/lll ever become an epidemical disorder.
Against this, nature has too well provided. Hope and
fear are the powerful agents wh.ich she often employs
to stay the hand of the unhappy individual about
to strike at his own breast. Cardinal Dubois was
once heard to say to himself : "Kill thyself ! Cow-
ard, thou darest not !"

It is said that there have been countries in which
a council was established to grant the citizens per-
mission to kill themselves when they had good and

Dictionary. 27

sufficient reasons. I answer either that it was not so
or that those magistrates had not much to do.

It might, indeed, astonish us, and does, I think,
merit a serious examination, that ahiiost all the an-
cient Roman heroes killed themselves when they had
lost a battle in the civil wars. But I do not find,
neither in the time of the League, nor in that of the
Fronde, nor in the troubles of Italy, nor in those of
England, that any chief thought proper to die by his
own hand. These chiefs, it is true, were Christians,
and there is a great difference between the principles
of a Christian warrior and those of a Pagan hero.
But why were these men whom Christianity re-
strained when they would have put themselves to
death, restrained by nothing when they chose to
poison, assassinate, and bring their conquered ene-
mies to the scaffold ? Does not the Christian religion
forbid these murders much more than self-murder,
of which the New Testament makes no mention ?

The apostles of suicide tell us that it is quite al-
lowable to quit one's house when one is tired of it.
Agreed, but most men would prefer sleeping in a
mean house to lying in the open air.

I once received a circular letter from an English-
man, in which he offered a prize to any one who
should most satisfactorily prove that there arc occa-
sions on which a man might kill himself. I made no
answer : I had nothing to prove to him. He had
only to examine whether he liked better to die than to
live.

38 Philosophical

Another Englishman came to me at Paris in 1724 ;
he was ill, and promised me that he would kill him-
self if he was not cured by July 20. He accordingly
gave me his epitaph in these words : "Valete cura!"
"Farewell care!" and gave me twenty-five louis to
get a small monument erected to him at the end of
the Faubourg St. Martin. I returned him his money
on July 20, and kept his epitaph.

In my own time the last prince of the house of
Courtenai, when very old, and the last branch of
Lx)rraine-Harcourt, when very young, destroyed
themselves almost without its being heard of. These
occurrences cause a terrible uproar the first day, but
when the property of the deceased has been divided
they are no longer talked of.

The following most remarkable of all suicides has
just occurred at Lyons, in June, 1770: A young
man well known, who was handsome, well made,
clever, and amiable, fell in love with a young woman
whom her parents would not give to him. So far
we have nothing more than the opening scene of a
comedy, the astonishing tragedy is to follow.

The lover broke a blood-vessel and the surgeons
informed him there was no remedy. His mistress
engaged to meet him, with two pistols and two dag-
gers in order that, if the pistols missed the daggers
might the next moment pierce their hearts. They
embraced each other for the last time : rose-colored
ribbons were tied to the triggers of the pistols ; the
lover holding the ribbon of his mistress's pistol, while

Dictionary. 99

she held the ribbon of his. Both fired at a signal
given, and both fell at the same instant.

Of this fact the whole city of Lyons is witness,
Paetus and Arria, you set the example, but you were
condemned by a tyrant, while love alone immolated
these two victims.

Laws Against Suicide.

Has any law, civil or religious, ever forbidden a
man to kill himself, on pain of being hanged after
death, or on pain of being damned ? It is true that
Virgil has said :

Proxima deinde tenent mcesti loca, qui sibi lethum
Insotites peperere viatiu, lucetuque perosi
Projecere ani77ias. Qiiavi vellent cethere in alto
Ntittc et pauperiem et duros perferre labores!
Fata obstant, tristique palus hiamabilis unda
Alligat, et novies Styx interfusa coercet.

— JEneis, lib. vi. V. 434 et seq.

The next in place, and punishment, are they
Who prodigally throw their souls away —
Fools, who repining at their wretched state.
And loathing anxious life, suborn their fate;
With late repentance now they would retrieve
The bodies they forsook, and wish to live;
Their pains and poverty desire to bear,
To view the light of heaven and breathe the vital air;— r
But fate forbids, the Stygian floods oppose,
And, with nine circling streams, the captive souls inclose.

— Dryden,

Such was the religion of some of the pagans,
yet, notwithstanding the weariness which awaite4
them in the next world it was an honor to quit this
by killing themselves — so contradictory are the ways
of men. And among us is not duelling unfortu-
nately still honorable, though forbidden by reason,
by religion, and by every law ? If Cato and Caesar,

30 Philosophical

Antony and Augustus, were not duellists it was not
that they were less brave than our Frenchmen. If
the duke of Montmorency, Marshal de Marillac,
de Thou, Cinq-Mars, and so many others, chose
rather to be dragged to execution in a wagon, like
highwaymen, than to kill themselves hke Cato and
Brutus, it was not that they had less courage than
those Romans, nor less of what is called honor. The
true reason is that at Paris self-murder in such cases
was not then the fashion; but it was the fashion at
Rome.

The women of the Malabar coast throw them-
selves, living, on the funeral piles of their husbands.
Have they, then, more courage than Cornelia ? No ;
but in that country it is the custom for the wives to
burn themselves.

In Japan it is the custom for a man of honor,
when he has been insulted by another man of honor,
to rip open his belly in the presence of his enemy
and say to him : "Do you likev/ise if thou hast the
heart." The aggressor is dishonored for ever if he
does not immediately plunge a great knife into his
belly.

The only religion in which suicide is forbidden by
a clear and positive law is Mahometanism. In the
fourth sura it is said : "Do not kill yourself, for
God is merciful unto you, and whosoever killeth
himself through malice and wickedness shall as-
suredly be burned in hell fire."

This is a literal translation. The text, like many

Dictionary. 3 1

other texts, appears to want common sense. What
is meant by "Do not kill yourself for God is merci-
ful"? Perhaps we are to understand — Do not sink
under your misfortunes, which God may alleviate :
do not be so foolish as to kill yourself to-day since
you may be happy to-morrow.

"And whosoever killeth himself through malice
and wickedness." This is yet more difficult to ex-
plain. Perhaps, in all antiquity, this never happened
to any one but the Phrcedra of Euripides, who
hanged herself on purpose to make Theseus believe
that she had been forcibly violated by Hippolytus.
In our own times a man shot himself in the head,
after arranging all things to make another man sus-
pected of the act.

In the play of George Dandin, his jade of a wife
threatens him with killing herself to have him
hanged. Such cases are rare. If Mahomet foresaw
them he may be said to have seen a great way. The
famous Duverger de Haurane, abbot of St. Cyran,
regarded as the founder of Port Royal, wrote, about
the year 1608, a treatise on "Suicide," which has
become one of the scarcest books in Europe.

"The Decalogue," says he, "forbids us to kill. In
this precept self-murder seems no less to be com-
prised than murder of our neighbor. But if there
are cases in which it is allowable to kill our neighbor
there likewise are cases in which it is allowable to
kill ourselves.

"We must not make an attempt upon our lives

3 2 Philosophical

until we have consulted reason. The public author-
ity, which holds the place of God, may dispose of
our lives. The reason of man may likewise hold the
place of the reason of God : it is a ray of the eternal
light."

St. Cyran extends this argument, which may be
considered as a mere sophism, to great length, but
when he comes to the explanation and the details
it is more difficult to answer him. He says : "A
man may kill himself for the good of his prince,
for that of his country, or for that of his relations."

We do not, indeed, see how Codrus or Curtius
could be condemned. No sovereign would dare to
punish the family of a man who had devoted him-
self to death for him; nay, there is not one who
would dare neglect to recompense it. St. Thomas,
before St. Cyran, had said the same thing. But we
need neither St. Thomas, nor Cardinal Bonaventura,
nor Duverger de Haurane to tell us that a man who
dies for his country is deserving of praise.

The abbot of St. Cyran concludes that it is al-
lowable to do for ourselves what it is noble to do for
others. All that is advanced by Plutarch, by Seneca,
by Montaigne, and by fifty other philosophers, in
favor of suicide is sufficiently known ; it is a hack-
neyed topic — a womout commonplace, I seek not to
apologize for an act which the laws condemn, but
neither the Old Testament, nor the New has ever
forbidden man to depart this life when it has become
insupportable to him. No Roman law condemned

Dictionary. ^^

self-murder; on the contrary, the following was the
law of the Emperor Antoine, which was never re-
voked :

'*If your father or your brother not being accused
of any crime kill himself, either to escape from
grief, or through weariness of life, or through de-
spair, or through mental derangement, his will shall
be valid, or, if he die intestate his heirs shall suc-
ceed."

Notwithstanding this humane law of our masters
we still drag on a sledge and drive a stake through
the body of a man who has died a voluntary death ;
we do all we can to make his memory infamous ;
Vv^e dishonor his family as far as we are able ; we
punish the son for having lost his father, and the
widow for being deprived of her husband.

We even confiscate the property of the deceased,
which is robbing the living of the patrimony which
of right belongs to them. This custom is derived
from our canon law, which deprives of Christian
burial such as die a voluntary death. Hence it is
concluded that we cannot inherit from a man who
is judged to have no inheritance in heaven. The
canon law, under the head "De Panitentia," assures
us that Judas committed a greater crime in strang-
ling himself than in selling our Lord Jesus Christ.

CELTS.

Among those who have had the leisure, the

means, and the courage to seek for the origin of
Vol 7—3

34 Philosophical

nations, there have been some who have found that
of our Celts, or at least would make us believe that
they had met with it. This illusion being the only
recompense of their immense travail, we should not
envy them its possession.

If we wish to know anything about the Huns —
who, indeed, are scarcely worth knowing anything
about, for they have rendered no service to man-
kind— we find some slight notices of those barbar-
ians among the Chinese — that most ancient of all na-
tions, after the Indians. From them we learn that,
in certain ages, the Huns went like famishing
wolves and ravaged countries which, even at this
day are regarded as places of exile and of horror.
This is a very melancholy, a very miserable sort of
knowledge. It is, doubtless, much better to culti-
vate a useful art at Paris, Lyons, or Bordeaux, than
seriously to study the history of the Huns and the
bears. Nevertheless we are aided in these researches
by some of the Chinese archives.

But for the Celts there are no archives. We
know no more of their antiquities than we do of
those of the Samoyeds or the Australasians.

We have learned nothing about our ancestors ex-
cept from the few words which their conqueror,
Julius Csesar, condescended to say of them. He be-
gins his "Commentaries" by dividing the Gauls
into the Belgians, Aquitanians, and Celts.

Whence some of the daring among the erudite
have concluded that the Celts were the Scythians,

Dictionary. 35

and they have made these Scythio-Celts include all
Europe. But why not include the whole earth?
W^hy stop short in so fine a career ?

We have also been duly told that Noah's son,
Japhet, came out of the Ark, and went with all speed
to people all those vast regions with Celts, whom he
governed marvellously well. But authors of greater
modesty refer the origin of our Celts to the tower of
Babel — to the confusion of tongues — to Gomer, of
whom no one ever heard until the very recent period
when some wise men of the West read the name of
Gomer in a bad translation of the Septuagint,

Bochart, in his "Sacred Chronology" — what a
chronology ! — takes quite a different turn. Of these
innumerable hordes of Celts he makes an Egyptian
colony, skilfully and easily led by Hercules from
the fertile banks of the Nile into the forests and
morasses of Germany, whither, no doubt, these col-
onists carried the arts and the language of Egypt
and the mysteries of Isis, no trace of which has ever
been found among them.

I think they are still more to be congratulated
on their discoveries, who say that the Celts of the
mountains of Dauphiny were called Cottians, from
their King Cottius ; that the Berichons were named
from their King Betrich ; the Welsh, or Gaulish,
from their King Wallus, and the Belgians from Bal-
gem, which means quarrelsome.

A still finer origin is that of the Celto-Pannon-
ians, from the Latin word panniis, cloth, for, we are

^6 Philosophical

told they dressed themselves in old pieces of cloth
badly sewn together, much resembling a harlequin's
jacket. But the best origin of all is, undeniably, the
tower of Babel.

CEREMONIES— TITLES— PRECEDENCE.

All these things, which would be useless and
impertinent in a state of pure nature, are, in our
corrupt and ridiculous state, of great service. Of all
nations, the Chinese are those who have carried the
use of ceremonies to the greatest length ; they cer-
tainly serve to calm as well as to weary the mind.
The Chinese porters and carters are obliged, when-
ever they occasion the least hindrance in the streets,
to fall on their knees and ask one another's pardon
according to the prescribed formula. This prevents
ill language, blows and murders. They have time
to grow cool and are then willing to assist one an-
other.

The more free a people are, the fewer ceremonies,
the fewer ostentatious titles, the fewer demonstra-
tions of annihilation in the presence of a superior,
they possess. To Scipio men said "Scipio" ; to
Caesar, "Caesar" ; but in after times they said to the
emperors, "your majesty," "your divinity."

The titles of St. Peter and St. Paul were "Peter"
and "Paul." Their successors gave one another the
title of "your holiness," which is not to be found in
the Acts of the Apostles, nor in the writings of the
disciples.

Dictionary. 37

We read in the history of Germany that the
dauphin of France, afterwards Charles V., went to
the Emperor Charles IV. at Metz and was presented
after Cardinal de Perigord.

There has since been a time when chancellors went
before cardinals ; after which cardinals again took
precedence of chancellors.

In France the peers preceded the princes of the
blood, going in the order of their creation, until the
consecration of Henry III.

The dignity of peer was, until that time, so ex-
alted that at the ceremony of the consecration of
Elizabeth, wife to Charles IX., in 1572, described
by Simon Bouquet, echevin of Paris, it is said that
the queen's dames and demoiselles having handed tc;
the dame d'honneur the bread, wine and wax, with
the silver, for the offering to be presented to the
queen by the said dame d'honneur, the said dame
d'honneufj being a duchess, commanded the dames
to go and carry the offering to the princesses them-
selves, etc. This dame d'honneur was the wife of the
constable Montmorency.

The armchair, the chair with a back, the stool, the
right hand and the left were for several ages im-
portant political matters. I believe that we owe the
ancient etiquette concerning armchairs to the circum-
stance that our barbarians of ancestors had at most
but one in a house, and even this was used only by
the sick. In some provinces of Germany and Eng-
land an armchair is still called a sick-chair.

38 Philosophical

Long after the times of Attila and Dagobert, when
luxury found its way into our courts and the great
men of the earth had two or three armchairs in their
donjons, it was a noble distinction to ?''t upon one
of these thrones ; and a castellain would place among
his titles how he had gone half a league from home
to pay his court to a count, and how he had been re-
ceived in an easy-chair.

We see in the Memoirs of Mademoiselle that that
august princess passed one-fourth of her life amid
the mortal agonies of disputes for the back-chair.
Were you to sit in a certain apartment, in a chair, or
on a stool, or not to sit at all ? Here was enough to
involve a whole court in intrigue. Manners are now
more easy ; ladies may use couches and sofas with-
out occasioning any disturbance in society.

When Cardinal de Richelieu was treating with the
English ambassadors for the marriage of Henriette
of France with Charles I., the affair was on the point
of being broken off on account of a demand made
by the ambassadors of two or three steps more to-
wards a door; but the cardinal removed the diffi-
culty by taking to his bed. History has carefully
handed down this precious circumstance. I believe
that, if it had been proposed to Scipio to get between
the sheets to receive the visit of Hannibal, he would
have thought the ceremony something like a joke.

For a whole century the order of carriages and
taking the wall were testimonials of greatness and
the source of pretensions, disputes, and conflicts. To

Dictionary. 39

procure the passing of one carriage before another
was looked upon as a signal victory. The ambas-
sadors went along the streets as if they were con-
tending for the prize in the circus ; and when a Span-
ish minister had succeeded in making a Portuguese
coachman pull up, he sent a courier to Madrid to
apprise the king, his master, of this great advantage.

Our histories regale us with fifty pugilistic com-
bats for precedence — as that of the parliament with
the bishops' clerks at the funeral of Henry IV., the
chamhre dcs comptes wdth the parliament in the ca-
thedral when Louis XIII. gave France to the Virgin,
the duke of Epernon with the keeper of the seals,
Du Vair, in the church of St. Germain. The pres-
idents of the enquetes buffeted Savare, the doyen of
the conseillers de grand' chamhre, to make him quit
his place of honor (so much is honor the soul of mo-
narchical governments!), and four archers were
obliged to lay hold of the President Barillon, who
was beating the poor doyen without mercy. We find
no contests like these in the Areopagus, nor in the
Roman senate.

In proportion to the barbarism of countries or
the weakness of courts, we find ceremony in vogue.
True powder and true politeness are above vanity. We
may venture to believe that the custom will at last be
given up which some ambassadors still retain, of
ruining themselves in order to go along the streets
in procession with a few hired carriages, fresh
painted and gilded, and preceded by a few footmen.

40 Philosophical

This is called "making their entry" ; and it is a fine
joke to make your entry into a town seven or eight
months before you arrive.

This important affair of punctilio, which consti-
tutes the greatness of the modern Romans — this
science of the number of steps that should be made
in showing in a inonsignor, in drawing or half draw-
ing a curtain, in walking in a room to the right or to
the left — this great art, which neither Fabius norCalo
could ever imagine, is beginning to sink ; and the
train-bearers to the cardinals complain that every-
thing indicates a decline.

A French colonel, being at Brussels a year after
the taking of that place by Marshal de Saxe, and
having nothing to do, resolved to go to the town as-
sembly. "It is held at a princess'," said one to him.
"Be it so," answered the other, "what matters it to
me?" "But only princes go there; are you a
prince ?" "Pshaw !" said the colonel, "they are a very
good sort of princes ; I had a dozen of them in my
anteroom last year, when we had taken the town,
and they were very polite."

In turning over the leaves of "Horace" I observe
this line in an epistle to Maecenas, "Te, diilcis amice
revisam." — "I will come and see you, my good
friend." This Msecenas was the second person in the
Roman Empire ; that is, a man of greater power and
influence than the greatest monarch of modern Eu-
rope.

Looking into the works of Corneille, I observed

Dictionary. 41

that in a letter to the great Scuderi, governor of
Notre Dame de la Garde, etc., he uses this expression
in reference to Cardinal Richelieu : "Monsieur the
cardinal, your master and mine." It is, perhaps, the
first time that such language has been applied to a
minister, since there have been ministers, kings and
flatterers in the world. The same Peter Corneille,
the author of "Cinna," humbly dedicates that work to
the Sieur de Montauron, the king's treasurer, whom
in direct terms he compares to Augustus. I regret
that he did not give Montauron the title of mon-
seigneur or my lord.

An anecdote is related of an old officer, but little
conversant with the precedents and formulas of
vanity, who wrote to the Marquis Louvois as plain
monsieur, but receiving no answer, next addressed
him under the title of monseigneur, still, however,
without effect, the unlucky monsieur continuing to
rankle in the minister's heart. He finally directed his
letter "to my God, my God Louvois" ; commencing
it by the w^ords, "my God, my Creator." Does not
all this sufficiently prove that the Romans w^ere mag-
nanimous and modest, and that we are frivolous and
vain?

"How d'ye do, my dear friend?" said a duke and
peer to a gentleman. "At your service, my dear
friend," replied he ; and from that instant his "dear
friend" became his implacable enemy. A grandee of
Portugal was once conversing with a Spanish hidalgo
and addressing him every moment in the terms,

42 Philosophical

"your excellency." The Castilian as frequently re-
pUed, "your courtesy" (vuestra merced), a title be-
stowed on those who have none by right. The irri-
tated Portuguese in return retorted "your courtesy"
on the Spaniard, who then called the Portuguese
"your excellency." The Portuguese, at length
wearied out, demanded, "How is it that you always
call me your courtesy, when I call you your excel-
lency, and your excellency when I call you your
courtesy?" "The reason is," says the Castilian with
a bow, "that all titles are equal to me, provided that
there is nothing equal between you and me."

The vanity of titles was not introduced into our
northern climes of Europe till the Romans had be-
come acquainted with Asiatic magnificence. The
greater part of the sovereigns of Asia were, and still
are, cousins german of the sun and the moon ; their
subjects dare not make any pretension to such high
affinity ; and many a provincial governor, who styles
himself "nutmeg of consolation" and "rose of de-
light" would be empaled alive if he were to claim the
slightest relationship to the sun and moon.

Constantine was, I think, the first Roman emperor
who overwhelmed Christian humility in a page of
pompous titles. It is true that before his time the
emperors bore the title of god, but the term implied
nothing similar to what we understand by it. Divus
Augustus, Divus Trajanus, meant St. Augustus, St.
Trajan. It was thought only conformable to the

Dictionary. 43

dignity of the Roman Empire that the soul of its chief
should, after his death, ascend to heaven ; and it fre-
quently even happened that the title of saint, of
god, was granted to the emperor by a sort of antici-
pated inheritance. Nearly for the same reason the
first patriarchs of the Christian church were all called
"your holiness." They were thus named to remind
them of what in fact they ought to be.

Men sometimes take upon themselves very humble
titles, provided they can obtain from others very hon-
orable ones. Many an abbe who calls himself brother
exacts from his monks the title of monseigneur. The
pope styles himself "servant of the servants of God."
An honest priest of Holstein once addressed a letter
"to Pius IV., servant of the servants of God." He
afterwards went to Rome to urge his suit, and the in-
quisition put him in prison to teach him how to ad-
dress letters.

Formerly the emperor alone had the title of
majesty. Other sovereigns were called your high-
ness, your serenity, your grace. Louis XI. was the
first in France who was generally called majesty, a
title certainly not less suitable to the dignity of a
powerful hereditary kingdom than to an elective prin-
cipality. But long after him the term highness was
applied to kings of France ; and some letters to
Henry HI. are still extant in which he is addressed
by that title. The states of Orleans objected to
Queen Catherine de Medici being called majesty.

44 Philosophical

But this last denomination gradually prevailed. The
name is indifferent; it is the power alone that is
not so.

The German chancery, ever unchangeable in its
stately formalities, has pretended down to our own
times that no kings have a right to a higher title than
serenity. At the celebrated treaty of Westphalia, in
which France and Sweden dictated the law to the
holy Roman Empire, the emperor's plenipotentiar,''?s
continually presented Latin memorials, in which "his
most sacred imperial majesty" negotiated with the
"most serene kings of France and Sweden" ; while,
on the other hand, the French and Swedes fail not to
declare that their "sacred majesties of France and
Sweden" had many subjects of complaint against the
"most serene emperor." Since that period, however,
the great sovereigns have, in regard to rank, been
considered as equals, and he alone who beats his
neighbor is adjudged to have the pre-eminence.

Philip II. was the first majesty in Spain, for the
serenity of Charles V. was converted into majesty
only on account of the empire. The children of
Philip II, were the first highnesses ; and afterwards
they were royal highnesses. The duke of Orleans,
brother of Louis XIII., did not take up the title of
royal highness till 1631 ; then the prince of Conde
claimed that the most serene highness, which the
Dukes de Vendome did not venture to assume. The
duke of Savoy, at that time royal highness, after-
wards substituted majesty. The grand duke of

Dictionary. 45

Florence did the same, excepting as to majesty ; and
finally the czar, who was known in Europe only as
the grand duke, declared himself emperor, and was
recognized as such.

Formerly there were only two marquises in Ger-
many, two in France and two in Italy. The marquis
of Brandenburg has become a king, and a great
king. But at present our Italian and French mar-
quises are of a somewhat different species.

If an Italian citizen has the honor of giving a din-
ner to the legate of his province, and the legate, when
drinking, says to him, "Monsieur le marquis, to your
good health," he suddenly becomes a marquis, he and
his heirs after him, forever. If the inhabitant of any
province of France, whose whole estate consists of
a quarter part of a little decayed castle-ward, goes to
Paris, makes something of a fortune, or carries the
air of having made one, he is styled in the deeds and
legal instruments in which he is concerned "high and
mighty seigneur, marquis and count," and his son
will be denominated by his notary "very high and
very mighty seigneur," and as this frivolous ambition
is in no way injurious to government or civil society,
it is permitted to take its course. Some French lords
boast of employing German barons in their stables ;
some German lords say they have French marquises
in their kitchens ; it is not a long time since a for-
eigner at Naples made his coachman a duke. Custom
in these cases has more power than royal authority.
If you are but little known at Paris, you may there be

46 Philosophical

a count or a marquis as long as you please ; if you
are connected with the law of finance, though the
king should confer on you a real marquisate, you will
not, therefore, be monsieur le marquis. The cele-
brated Samuel Bernard was, in truth, more a count
than five hundred such as we often see not possessing
four acres of land. The king had converted his es-
tate of Coubert into a fine county ; yet if on any oc-
casion he had ordered himself to be announced as
Count Bernard, etc., he would have excited bursts
of laughter. In England it is different ; if the king
confers the title of earl or baron on a merchant, all
classes address him with the designation suitable to
it without the slightest hesitation. By persons of the
highest birth, by the king himself, he is called my
lord. It is the same in Italy ; there is a register kept
there of monsignori. The pope himself addresses
them under that title; his physician is monsignor,
and no one objects.

In France the title of monseigneur or my lord is a
very serious business. Before the time of Cardinal
Richelieu a bishop was only "a. most reverend father
in God."

Before the year 1635 bishops did not only not as-
sume the title of monseigneur themselves, but they
did not even give it to cardinals. These two customs
were introduced by a bishop of Chartres, who, in full
canonicals of lawn and purple, went to call Cardinal
Richelieu monseignetir, on which occasion Louis

Dictionary. 47

XIII. observed that "Chartrain would not mind
saluting the cardinal au derriere."

It is only since that period that bishops have
mutually applied to each other the title of mon-
seigneur.

The public made no objection to this application
of it ; but, as it was a new title, not conferred on
bishops by kings, they continued to be called sieurs
in edicts, declarations, ordinances and all official doc-
uments ; and when the council wrote to a bishop
they gave him no higher title than monsieur.

The dukes and peers have encountered more diffi-
culty in acquiring possession of the title of mon-
seigneur. The grande noblesse, and what is called
the grand robe, decidedly refuse them that distinc-
tion. The highest gratification of human pride con-
sists in a man's receiving titles of honor from those
who conceive themselves his equals ; but to attain
this is exceedingly difficult ; pride always finds pride
to contend with.

When the dukes insisted on receiving the title of
monseigneur from the class of gentlemen, the presi-
dents of the parliaments required the same from ad-
vocates and proctors. A certain president actually
refused to be bled because his surgeon asked : "In
which arm will you be bled, monsieur?" An old
counsellor treated this matter somewhat more gayly.
A pleader was saying to him, "Monseigneur, mon-
sieur, vour secretary" .... He stopped him short :

48 Philosophical

"You have uttered three blunders," says he, "in as
many words. I am not monseigneur ; my secretary
is not monsieur; he is my clerk."

To put an end to this grand conflict of vanity it
will eventually be found necessary to give the title
of monseigneur to every individual in the nation ; as
women, who were formerly content with mademoi-
selle, are now to be called madame. In Spain, when
a mendicant meets a brother beggar, he thus accosts
him: "Has your courtesy taken chocolate?" This
politeness of language elevates the mind and keeps
up the dignity of the species. Caesar and Pompey
were called in the senate Caesar and Pompey. But
these men knew nothing of life. They ended their
letters with zvle — adieu. We, who possess more
exalted notions, were sixty years ago "affectionate
servants"; then "very humble and very obedient";
and now we "have the honor to be" so. I really
grieve for posterity, which will find it extremely
difficult to add to these very beautiful formulas. The
Duke d'fipernon, the first of Gascons in pride,
though far from being the first of statesmen, wrote
on his deathbed to Cardinal Richelieu and ended his
letter with : "Your very humble and very obedient."
Recollecting, however, that the cardinal had used
only the phrase "very affectionate," he despatched
an express to bring back the letter (for it had been
actually sent off), began it anew, signed "very affec-
tionate," and died in the bed of honor.

We have made many of these observations else-

Dictionary. 49

where. It is well, however, to repeat them, were it
only to correct some pompous peacocks, who would
strut away their lives in contemptibly displaying
their plumes and their pride.

CERTAIN— CERTAINTY.

I AM certain ; I have friends ; my fortune is
secure ; my relations will never abandon me ; I shall
have justice done me ; my work is good, it will be
well received ; what is owing to me will be paid ; my
friend will be faithful, he has sworn it ; the minister
will advance me — he has, by the way, promised it —
all these are words which a man who has lived a
short time in the world erases from his dictionary.

When the judges condemned L'Anglade, Le
Brun, Calas, Sirven, Martin, RIontbailli, and so
many others, since acknowledged to have been inno-
cent, they were certain, or they ought to have been
certain, that all these unhappy men were guilty ; yet
they were deceived. There are two ways of being
deceived ; by false judgment and self-blindness —
that of erring like a man of genius, and that of decid-
ing like a fool.

The judges deceived themselves like men of
genius in the affair of L'Anglade ; they were
blinded by dazzling appearances and did not suffi-
ciently examine the probabilities on the other side.
Their wisdom made them believe it certain that
L'Anglade had committed a theft, which he certainly
had not committed ; and on this miserable uncertain

Vol. 7—4

50 Philosophical

certainty of the human mind, a gentleman was put to
the ordinary and extraordinary question ; subsequent
thrown, without succor, into a dungeon and con-
demned to the galleys, where he died. His wife was
shut up in another dungeon, with her daughter,
aged seven years, who afterwards married a coun-
sellor of the same parliament which had condemned
her father to the galleys and her mother to banish-
ment.

It is clear that the judges would not have pro-
nounced this sentence had they been really certain.
However, even at the time this sentence was passed
several persons knew that the theft had been com-
mitted by a priest named Gagnat, associated with a
highwayman, and the innocence of L'Anglade was
not recognized till after his death.

They were in the same manner certain when, by a
sentence in the first instance, they condemned to
the wheel the innocent Le Brun, who, by an arret
pronounced on his appeal, was broken on the rack,
and died under the torture.

The examples of Calas and Sirven are well known,
that of Martin is less so. He was an honest agricul-
turist near Bar in Lorraine. A villain stole his dress
and in this dress murdered a traveller whom he knew
to have money and whose route he had watched.
Martin was accused, his dress was a witness against
him ; the judges regarded this evidence as a cer-
tainty. Not the past conduct of the prisoner, a num-
erous family whom he had brought up virtuously,

Dictionary. 51

neither the Httle money found on him, nor the ex-
treme probabiHty of his innocence — nothing could
save him. The subaltern judge made a merit of his
rigor. He condemned the innocent victim to be
broken on the wheel, and, by an unhappy fatality the
sentence was executed to the full extent. The senior
Martin is broken alive, calling God to witness his
innocence to his last breath ; his family is dispersed,
his little property is confiscated, and scarcely are his
broken members exposed on the great road when the
assassin who had committed the murder and theft is
put in prison for another crime, and confesses on the
rack, to which he is condemned in his turn, that he
only was guilty of the crime for which Martin had
suffered torture and death.

Montbailli, who slept with his wife, was accused
with having, in concert with her, killed his mother,
who had evidently died of apoplexy. The council of
Arras condemned Montbailli to expire on the rack,
and his wife to be burnt. Their innocence was dis-
covered, but not until Montbailli had been tortured.
Let us cease advertence to these melancholy adven-
tures, which make us groan at the human condition ;
but let us continue to lament the pretended certainty
of judges, when they pass such sentences.

There is no certainty, except when it is physically
or morally impossible that the thing can be other-
wise. What ! is a strict demonstration necessary to
enable us to assert that the surface of a sphere is
equal to four times the area of its great circle ; and

52 Philosophical

is not one required to warrant taking away the Hfe of
a citizen by a disgraceful punishment?

If such is the misfortune of humanity that judges
must be contented with extreme probabilities, they
should at least consult the age, the rank, the conduct
of the accused — the interest which he could have in
committing the crime, and the interest of his enemies
to destroy him. Every judge should say to himself:
Will not posterity, will not entire Europe condemn
my sentence ? Shall I sleep tranquilly with my hands
tainted with innocent blood? Let us pass from this
horrible picture to other examples of a certainty
which leads directly to error.

Why art thou loaded with chains, fanatical and
unhappy Santon ? Why hast thou added a large iron
ring on thy miserable scourge? It is because I am
certain of being one day placed in the first heaven,
by the side of our great prophet. Alas, my friend,
come with me to the neighborhood of Mount Athos
and thou wilt see three thousand mendicants who are
as certain that thou wilt go to the gulf which is under
the narrow bridge, as that they will all go to the first
heaven !

Stop, miserable Malabar widow, believe not the
fool who persuades you that you shall be reunited to
your husband in all the delights of another world, if
you burn yourself on his funeral pile ! No, I persist
in burning myself because I am certain of living in
felicity with my husband ; my brahmin told me so.

Let us attend to less frightful certainties, and

Dictionary. 53

which have a Httle more appearance of truth. What
is the age of your friend Christopher ? Twenty-eight
years. I have seen his marriage contract, and his
baptismal register ; I knew him in his infancy ; he
is twenty-eight — I am certain of it.

Scarcely have I heard the answer of this man,
so sure of what he said, and of twenty others who
confirmed the same thing, when I learn that for
secret reasons, and by a singular circumstance the
baptismal register of Christopher has been antedated.
Those to whom I had spoken as yet know nothing of
it, yet they have still the same certainty of that which
is not.

If you had asked the whole earth before the time
of Copernicus : has the sun risen ? has it set to-day ?
all men would have answered : We are quite certain
of it. They were certain and they were in error.

Witchcraft, divinations, and possessions were for
a long time the most certain things in the world in
the eyes of society. What an innumerable crowd of
people who have seen all these fine things and who
have been certain of them ! At present this certainty
is a little shaken.

A young man who is beginning to study geometry
comes to me ; he is only at the definition of triangles.
Are you not certain, said I to him, that the three
angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles?
He answered that not only was he not certain of it,
but that he had not the slightest idea of the proposi-
tion. I demonstrated it to him. He then became

54 Philosophical

very certain of it, and will remain so all his life.
This is a certainty very different from the others ;
they were only probabilities and these probabilities,
when examined, have turned out errors, but mathe-
matical certainty is immutable and eternal.

I exist, I think, I feel grief — is all that as certain
as a geometrical truth? Yes, skeptical as I am, I
avow it. Why? It is that these truths are proved
by the same principle that it is impossible for a thing
to exist and not exist at the same time. I cannot
at the same time feel and not feel. A triangle can-
not at the same time contain a hundred and eighty
degrees, which are the sum of two right angles, and
not contain them. The physical certainty of my ex-
istence, of my identity, is of the same value as mathe-
matical certainty, although it is of a different kind.

It is not the same with the certainty founded on
appearances, or on the unanimous testimony of man-
kind.

But how, you will say to me, are you not certain
that Pekin exists ? Have you not merchandise from
Pekin? People of different countries and different
opinions have vehemently written against one an-
other while preaching the truth at Pekin ; then are
you not assured Df the existence of this town? I
answer that it is extremely probable that there may
be a city of Pekin but I would not w^ager my life that
such a town exists, and I would at any time wager
my life that the three angles of a triangle are equal
to two right angles.

Dictionary. 55

In the" Dictionnaire Encyclopcdiqne"2i very pleas-
ant thing appears. It is there maintained that a man
ought to be as certain that Marshal Saxe rose from
the dead, if all Paris tells him so, as he is sure that
Marshal Saxe gained the battle of Fontenoy, upon
the same testimony. Pray observe the beauty of this
reasoning: as I believe all Paris when it tells me a
thing morally possible, I ought to believe all Paris
when it tells me a thing morally and physically im-
possible. Apparently the author of this article has
a disposition to be risible ; as to ourselves who have
only undertaken this little dictionary to ask a few
questions, we are very far from possessing this very
extensive certainty.

CHAIN OF CREATED BEINGS.

The gradation of beings rising from the lowest
to the Great Supreme — the scale of infinity — is an
idea that fills us with admiration, but when steadily
regarded this phantom disappears, as apparitions
were wont to vanish at the crowing of the cock.

The imagination is pleased with the imperceptible
transition from brute matter to organized matter,
from plants to zoophytes, from zoophytes to animals,
from animals to men, from men to genii, from these
genii, clad in a light aerial body, to immaterial sub-
stances of a thousand different orders, rising from
beauty to perfection, up to God Himself. This hier-
archy is very pleasing to young men who look upon
it as upon the pope and cardinals, followed by the

56 Philosophical

archbishops and bishops, after whom are the vicars,
curates and priests, the deacons and subdeacons,
then come the monks, and the capuchins bring up the
rear.

But there is, perhaps, a somewhat greater distance
between God and His most perfect creatures than
between the holy father and the dean of the sacred
college. The dean may become pope, but can the
most perfect genii created by the Supreme Being be-
come God ? Is there not infinity between them ?

Nor does this chain, this pretended gradation, any
more exist in vegetables and animals ; the proof is
that some species of plants and animals have been
entirely destroyed. We have no murex. The Jews
were forbidden to eat grififin and ixion, these two
species, whatever Bochart may say, have probably
disappeared from the earth. Where, then, is the
chain ?

Supposing that we had not lost some species, it is
evident that they may be destroyed. Lions and
rhinoceroses are becoming very scarce, and if the
rest of the nations had imitated the English, there
would not now have been a wolf left. It is probable
that there have been races of men who are no longer
to be found. Why should they not have existed as
well as the whites, the blacks, the KafBrs, to whom
nature has given an apron of their own skin, hang-
ing from the belly to the middle of the thigh ; the
Samoyeds, whose women have nipples of a beautiful
jet.

Dictionary. 57

Is there not a manifest void between the ape and
man ? Is it not easy to imagine a two-legged animal
without feathers having intelligence without our
shape or the use of speech — one which we could tame,
which would answer our signs, and serve us ? And
again, between this species and man, cannot we
imagine others ?

Beyond man, divine Plato, you place in heaven
a string of celestial substances, in some of which we
believe because the faith so teaches us. But what
reason had you to believe in them ? It does not ap-
pear that you had spoken with the genius of Soc-
rates, and though Heres, good man, rose again on
purpose to tell you the secrets of the other world, he
told you nothing of these substances. In the sen-
sible universe the pretended chain is no less inter-
rupted.

What gradation, I pray you, is there among the
planets ? The moon is forty times smaller than our
globe. Travelling from the moon through space, you
find Venus, about as large as the earth. From thence
you go to Mercury, which revolves in an ellipsis very
different from the circular orbit of Venus ; it is
twenty-seven times smaller than the earth, the sun is
a million times larger, and Mars is five times smaller.
The latter goes his round in two years, his neighbor
Jupiter in twelve, and Saturn in thirty ; yet Saturn,
the most distant of all, is not so large as Jupiter.
Where is the pretended gradation ?

And then, how, in so many empty spaces, do you

58 Philosophical

extend a chain connecting the whole? There can
certainly be no other than that which Newton dis-
covered— that which makes all the globes of the plan-
etary world gravitate one towards another in tbe im-
mense void.

Oh, much admired Plato ! I fear that you have
told us nothing but fables, that you have spoken to
us only as a sophist ! Oh, Plato ! you have done more
mischief than you are aware of. How so? you will
ask. I will not tell you.

CHAIN OR GENERATION OF EVENTS.

The present, we say, is pregnant with the future ;
events are linked one with another by an invincible
fatality. This is the fate which, in Homer, is supe-
rior to Jupiter himself. Tbe master of gods and men
expressly declares that he cannot prevent his son
Sarpedon from dying at the time appointed. Sar-
pedon was born at the moment when it was neces-
sary that he should be born, and could not be born
at any other ; he could not die elsewhere than before
Troy; he could not be buried elsewhere than in
Lycia ; his body must, in the appointed time, produce
vegetables, which must change into the substance of
some of the Lycians ; his heirs must establish a new
order of things in his states ; that new order must
influence neighboring kingdoms ; thence must result
a new arrangement in war and in peace with the
neighbors of Lycia. So that, from link to link, the
destinv of the whole earth depended on the elope-

Dictionary. 59

ment of Helen, which had a necessary connection
with the marriage of Hecuba, which, ascending to
higher events, was connected with the origin of
things.

Had any one of these occurrences been ordered
otherwise, the result would have been a different
universe. Now, it was not possible for the actual
universe not to exist ; therefore it was not possible
for Jupiter, Jove as he was, to save the life of his
son. We are told that this doctrine of necessity and
fatality has been invented in our own times by Leib-
nitz, under the name of sufficing reason. It is, how-
ever, of great antiquity. It is no recent discovery
that there is no effect without a cause and that often
the smallest cause produces the greatest effects.

Lord Bolingbroke acknowledges that he was in-
debted to the petty quarrels between the duchess of
Marlborough and Mrs. Masham for an opportunity
of concluding the private treaty between Queen Anne
and Louis XIV. This treaty led to the peace of
Utrecht ; the peace of Utrecht secured the throne of
Spain to Philip V. ; Philip took Naples and Sicily
from the house of Austria. Thus the Spanish prince,
who is now king of Naples, evidently owes his king-
dom to Mrs. Masham ; he would not have had it,
nor even have been born, if the duchess of Marlbor-
ough had been more complaisant towards the queen
of England ; his existence at Naples depended on
one folly more or less at the court of London.

Examine the situations of every people upon

6o Philosophical

earth ; they are in like manner founded on a train of
occurrences seemingly without connection, but all
connected. In this immense machine all is wheel,
pulley, cord, or spring. It is the same in physical
order. A wind blowing from the southern seas and
the remotest parts of Africa brings with it a portion
of the African atmosphere, which, falling in showers
in the valleys of the Alps, fertilizes our lands ; on
the other hand our north wind carries our vapors
among the negroes ; we do good to Guinea, and
Guinea to us. The chain extends from one end of the
universe to the other.

But the truth of this principle seems to me to be
strangely abused; for it is thence concluded that
there is no atom, however small, the movement of
which has not influenced the actual arrangement of
the whole world ; that the most trivial accident,
whether among men or animals, is an essential link
in the great chain of destiny.

Let us understand one another. Every effect evi-
dently has its cause, ascending from cause to cause,
into the abyss of eternity ; but every cause has not
its effect, going down to the end of ages. I grant
that all events are produced one by another; if the
past was pregnant with the present, the present is
pregnant with the future ; everything is begotten,
but everything does not beget. It is a genealogical
tree ; every house, we know, ascends to Adam, but
many of the family have died without issue.

The events of this world form a genealogical tree.

Dictionary. 61

It is indisputable that the inhabitants of Spain and
Gaul are descended from Gomer, and the Russians
from his younger brother Magog, for in how many-
great books is this genealogy to be found ! It cannot
then be denied that the grand Turk, who is also de-
scended from Magog, is obliged to him for the good
beating given him in 1769 by the Empress Catherine
II. This occurrence is evidently linked with other
great events ; but whether Magog spat to the right
or to the left near Mount Caucasus — made two or
three circles in a well — or whether he lay on his right
side or his left, I do not see that it could have much
influence on present affairs.

It must be remembered, because it is proved by
Newton, that nature is not a plenum, and that motion
is not communicated by collision until it has made
the tour of the universe. Throw a body of a certain
density into water, you easily calculate that at the
end of such a time the movement of this body, and
that which it has given to the water, will cease ; the
motion will be lost and rest will be restored. So the
motion produced by Alagog in spitting into a well
cannot have influenced what is now passing in Mol-
davia and Wallachia. Present events, then, are not
the offspring of all past events, they have their direct
lines, but with a thousand small collateral lines they
have nothing to do. Once more be it observed that
every being has a parent but every one has not an
offspring.

62 Philosophical

CHANGES THAT HAVE OCCURRED IN THE
GLOBE.

When we have seen with our own eyes a moun-
tain advancing into a plain — that is, an immense rock
detached from that mountain, and covering the fields,
an entire castle buried in the earth, or a swallowed-
up river bursting from below, indubitable marks of
an immense mass of water having once inundated a
country now inhabited, and so many traces of other
revolutions, we are even more disposed to believe in
the great changes that have altered the face of the
world than a Parisian lady who knows that the
square in which her house stands was formerly a
cultivated field, but a lady of Naples who has seen
the ruins of Herculaneum underground is still less
enthralled by the prejudice which leads us to believe
that everything has always been as it now is.

Was there a great burning of the world in the time
of Phaethon ? Nothing is more likely, but this catas-
trophe was no more caused by the ambition of Phae-
thon or the anger of Jupiter the Thunderer than at
Lisbon, in 1755, the Divine vengeance was drawn
down, the subterraneous fires kindled, and half the
city destroyed by the fires so often lighted there by
the inquisition — besides, we know that Mequinez,
Tetuan and considerable hordes of Arabs have been
treated even worse than Lisbon, though they had no
inquisition. The island of St. Domingo, entirely de-

Dictionary. 6^

vastated not long ago, had no more displeased the
Great Being than the island of Corsica ; all is subject
to eternal physical laws.

Sulphur, bitumen, nitre, and iron, enclosed within
the bowels of the earth have overturned many a city,
opened many a gulf, and we are constantly liable to
these accidents attached to the way in which this
globe is put together, just as, in many countries dur-
ing winter, we are exposed to the attacks of famish-
ing wolves and tigers. If fire, which Heraclitus be-
lieved to be the principle of all, has altered the face
of a part of the earth, Thales's first principle, water,
has operated as great changes.

One-half of America is still inundated by the an-
cient overflowings of the Maranon, Rio de la Plata,
the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, and all the rivers
perpetually swelled by the eternal snows of the high-
est mountains in the world, stretching from one end
of that continent to the other. These accumulated
floods have almost everywhere produced vast
marshes. The neighboring lands have become unin-
habitable, and the earth, which the hands of man
should have made fruitful, has produced only pesti-
lence.

The same thing happened in China and in Egypt :
a multitude of ages were necessary to dig canals and
dry the lands. Add to these lengthened disasters the
irruptions of the sea, the lands it has invaded and de-
serted, the islands it has detached from the continent
and you will find that from east to west, from Japan

64 Philosophical

to Mount Atlas, it has devastated more than eighty
thousand square leagues.

The swallowing up of the island Atlantis from
the ocean may, with as much reason, be considered
historical, as fabulous. The shallowness of the At-
lantic as far as the Canaries might be taken as a proof
of this great event and the Canaries themselves for
fragments of the island Atlantis.

Plato tells us in his "Timmis," that the Egyptian
priests, among whom he had travelled, had in their
possession ancient registers which certified that is-
land's going under water. Plato says that this catas-
trophe happened nine thousand years before his time.
No one will believe this chronology on Plato's word
only, but neither can any one adduce against it any
physical proof, nor even a historical testimony from
any profane writer.

Pliny, in his third book, says that from time im-
memorial the people of the southern coasts of Spain
believed that the sea had forced a passage between
Calpe and Abila : "Indigena: columnas HcrciiUs vo-
cant, crcduntque per fossas exchisa antea admisisse
maria, et reriim naturcc mutasse faciem."

An attentive traveller may convince himself by his
own eyes that the Cyclades and the Sporades were
once part of the continent of Greece, and especially
that Sicily was once joined to Apulia. The two
volcanos of Etna and Vesuvius having the same basis
in the sea, the little gulf of Charybdis, the only deep

Dictionary. 6^

part of that sea, the perfect resemblance of the two
soils are incontrovertible testimonies. The floods of
Deucalion and Ogyges are well known, and the
fables founded upon this truth are still more the talk
of all the West.

The ancients have mentioned several deluges in
Asia. The one spoken of by Berosus happened (as
he tells us) in Chaldaea, about four thousand three,
or four hundred years before the Christian era, and
Asia was as much inundated with fables about this
deluge as it was by the overflowings of the Tigris
and Euphrates, and all the rivers that fall into the
Euxine.

It is true that such overflowings cannot cover the
country with more than a few feet of water, but the
consequent sterility, the washing away of houses, and
the destruction of cattle are losses which it requires
nearly a centur}^ to repair. We know how much
they have cost Holland, more than the half of which
has been lost since the year 1050. She is still obliged
to maintain a daily conflict with the ever-threatening
ocean. She has never employed so many soldiers in
resisting her enemies as she employs laborers in con-
tinually defending her against the assaults of a sea
always ready to swallow her.

The road from Egypt to PhcEnicia, along the bor-
ders of Lake Serbo, was once quite practicable, but
it has long ceased to be so ; it is now nothing but a

quicksand, moistened by stagnant water. In short, a
Vol. 7— 5

66 Philosophical

great portion of the earth would be no other than a
vast poisonous marsh inhabited by monsters, but for
the assiduous labor of the human race.

We shall not here speak of the universal deluge
of Noah. Let it suffice to read the Holy Scriptures
with submission. Noah's flood was an incomprehen-
sible miracle supernaturally worked by the justice
and goodness of an ineffable Providence whose will
it was to destroy the whole guilty human race and
form a new and innocent race. If the new race was
more wicked than the former, and became more crim-
inal from age to age, from reformation to reforma-
tion, this is but another effect of the same Provi-
dence, of which it is impossible for us to fathom the
depths, the inconceivable mysteries transmitted to the
nations of the West for many ages, in the Latin
translation of the Septuagint. We shall never enter
these awful sanctuaries ; our questions will be lim-
ited to simple nature.

CHARACTER.

[From the Greek word signifying Impression, Engraving. —
It is what nature has engraved in us.]

Can we change our character ? Yes, if we change
our body. A man born turbulent, violent, and in-
flexible, may, through falling in his old age into an
apoplexy, become like a silly, weak, timid, puling
child. His body is no longer the same, but so long
as his nerves, his blood, and his marrow remain in
the same state his disposition will not change any
more than the instinct of a wolf or a polecat. The

Dictionary. 67

English author of "The Dispensary," a poem much
superior to the ItaHan "Capitoli," and perhaps even
to Boileau's "Lutrin," has, as it seems to me, well
observed.

How matter, by the varied shape of pores,
Or idiots frames, or solemn senators.

The character is formed of our ideas and our feel-
ings. Now it is quite clear that we neither give our-
selves feelings nor ideas, therefore our character can-
not depend on ourselves. If it did so depend, every-
one would be perfect. We cannot give ourselves
tastes, nor talents, why, then, should we give our-
selves qualities? When we do not reflect we think
we are masters of all : when we reflect we find that
we are masters of nothing.

If you would absolutely change a man's character
purge him with diluents till he is dead. Charles
XII., in his illness on the way to Bender, was no
longer the same man ; he was as tractable as a child.
If I have a wry nose and cat's eyes I can hide them
behind a mask, and can I do more with the character
that nature has given me ?

A man born violent and passionate presents him-
self before Francis I., king of France, to complain of
a trespass. The countenance of the prince, the re-
spectful behavior of the courtiers, the very place he
is in make a powerful impression upon this man. He
mechanically casts down his eyes, his rude voice is
softened, he presents his petition with humility, you
would think him as mild as (at that moment at least)

68 Philosophical

the courtiers appear to be, among whom he is often
disconcerted, but if Francis I. knows anything of
physiognomy, he will easily discover in his eye,
though downcast, glistening with a sullen fire, in the
extended muscles of his face, in his fast-closed lips,
that this man is not so mild as he is forced to appear.
The same man follows him to Pavia, is taken pris-
oner along with him and thrown into the same dun-
geon at Madrid. The majesty of Francis I. no
longer awes him as before, he becomes familiar with
the object of his reverence. One day, pulling on the
king's boots, and happening to pull them on ill, the
king, soured by misfortune, growls angry, on which
our man of courtesy wishes his majesty at the devil
and throws his boots out the window.

Sixtus V. was by nature petulant, obstinate,
haughty, impetuous, vindictive, arrogant. This char-
acter, however, seems to have been softened by the
trials of his novitiate. But see him beginning to ac-
quire some influence in his order; he flies into a
passion against a guardian and knocks him down.
Behold him an inquisitor at Venice, he exercises his
office with insolence. Behold him cardinal ; he is
possessed della rabbia papale; this rage triumphs
over his natural propensities; he buries his person
and his character in obscurity and counterfeits hu-
mility and infirmity. He is elected pope, and the
spring which policy had held back now acts with all
the force of its long-restrained elasticity; he is the
proudest and most despotic of sovereigns.

Dictionary. 69

Naturam expellas furea, tamen usque recurret.
Howe'er expelled, nature will still return.

Religion and morality curb the strength of the
disposition, but they cannot destroy it. The drunk-
ard in a cloister, reduced to a quarter of a pint of
cider each meal will never more get drunk, but he
will always be fond of wine.

Age weakens the character; it is as an old tree
producing only a few degenerate fruits, but always
of the same nature, which is covered with knots and
moss and becomes worm-eaten, but is ever the same,
whether oak or pear tree. If we could change our
character we could give ourselves one and become
the master of nature. Can we give ourselves any-
thing? do not we receive everything? To strive to
animate the indolent man with persevering activity,
to freeze with apathy the boiling blood of the impet-
uous, to inspire a taste for poetry into him who has
neither taste nor ear were as futile as to attempt to
give sight to one born blind. We perfect, we amelior-
ate, we conceal what nature has placed in us, but we
place nothing there ourselves.

An agriculturist is told: "You have too many
fish in this pond ; they will not thrive, here are too
many cattle in your meadows ; they will want grass
and grow lean." After this exhortation the pikes
come and eat one-half this man's carps, the wolves
one-half of his sheep, and the rest fatten. And will
you applaud his economy? This countryman is
yourself ; one of your passions devours the rest and

*jO Philosophical

you think you have gained a triumph. Do we not
almost all resemble the old general of ninety, who,
having found some young officers behaving in a
rather disorderly manner with some young women,
said to them in anger : "Gentlemen, is this the ex-
ample that I set you?"

CHARITY.

CHARITABLE AND BENEFICENT INSTITUTIONS^ ALMS-
HOUSES, HOSPITALS, ETC.

Cicero frequently speaks of universal charity,
charitas hurnani generis; but it does not appear
that the policy or the beneficence of the Romans ever
induced them to establish charitable institutions, in
which the indigent and the sick might be relieved at
the expense of the public. There was a receptacle
for strangers at the port of Ostia, called Xenodok-
ium, St. Jerome renders this justice to the Romans.
Almshouses seem to have been unknown in ancient
Rome. A more noble usage prevailed — that of sup-
plying the people with corn. There were in Rome
three hundred and twenty-seven public granaries.
This constant liberality precluded any need of alms-
houses. They were strangers to necessity.

Neither was there any occasion among the Ro-
mans for founding charities. None exposed their
own children. Those of slaves were taken care of
by their masters. Childbirth was not deemed dis-
graceful to the daughters of citizens. The poorest
families, maintained by the republic and afterwards

Dictionary. 71

by the emperors, saw the subsistence of their chil-
dren secured.

The expression/'charitable estabHshment," ma wo/t
de charite, impHes a state of indigence among mod-
ern nations which the form of our governments has
not been able to preclude.

The word "hospital," which recalls that of hospi-
tality, reminds us of a virtue in high estimation
among the Greeks, now no longer existing ; but it also
expresses a virtue far superior. There is a mighty
difference between lodging, maintaining, and provid-
ing in sickness for all afflicted applicants whatever,
and entertaining in your own house two or three
travellers by whom you might claim a right to be
entertained in return. Hospitality, after all, was
but an exchange. Hospitals are monuments of
beneficence.

It is true that the Greeks were acquainted with
charitable institutions under the name of Xenodokia,
for strangers, Nosocoiiieia, for the sick, and Ptokia,
for the indigent. In Diogenes Laertius, concerning
Bion, we find this passage : "He suffered much from
the indigence of those who were charged with the
care of the sick."

Hospitality among friends was called Idioxenia,
and among strangers Proxenia. Hence, the person
who received and entertained strangers in his house,
in the name of the whole city, was called Proxenos.
But this institution appears to have been exceedingly
rare. At the present day there is scarcely a city in

72 Philosophical

Europe without its hospitals. The Turks have them
even for beasts, which seems to be carrying charity
rather too far, it would be better to forget the beasts
and think more about men.

This prodigious multitude of charitable establish-
ments clearly proves a truth deserving of all our at-
tention— that man is not so depraved as he is stated
to be, and that, notwithstanding all his absurd opin-
ions, notwithstanding all the horrors of war which
transform him into a ferocious beast, we have reason
to consider him as a creature naturally well disposed
and kind, and who, like other animals, becomes
vicious only in proportion as he is stung by provoca-
tion.

The misfortune is that he is provoked too often.

Modern Rome has almost as many charitable in-
stitutions as ancient Rome had triumphal arches and
other monuments of conquest. The most consider-
able of them all is a bank which lends money at two
per cent, upon pledge, and sells the property if the
borrower does not redeem it by an appointed time.
This establishment is called the Archiospedale, or
chief hospital. It is said always to contain within its
walls nearly two thousand sick, which would be
about the fiftieth part of the population of Rome for
this one house alone, without including the children
brought up, and the pilgrims lodged there. Where are
the computations which do not require abatement?

Has it not been actually published at Rome that
the hospital of the Trinity had lodged and maintained

Dictionary. 73

for three days four hundred and forty thousand five
hundred male and twenty-five thousand female pil-
grims at the jubilee in 1600? Has not Misson him-
self told us that the hospital of the Annunciation at
Naples possesses a rental of two millions in our
money? (About four hundred thousand dollars.)

However, to return, perhaps a charitable establish-
ment for pilgrims who are generally mere vagabonds,
is rather an encouragement to idleness than an act
of humanity. It is, however, a decisive evidence
of humanity that Rome contains fifty charitable es-
tablishments including all descriptions. These
beneficent institutions are quite as useful and re-
spectable as the riches of some monasteries and
chapels are useless and ridiculous.

To dispense food, clothing, medicine, and aid of
every kind, to our brethren, is truly meritorious, but
what need can a saint have of gold and diamonds?
What benefit results to mankind from "our Lady oi
Loretto" possessing more gorgeous treasures than
the Turkish sultan? Loretto is a house of vanity,
and not of charity. London, reckoning its charity
schools, has as many beneficent establishments as
Rome.

The most beautiful monument of beneficence ever
erected is the Hotel des Invalides, founded by Louis
XIV.

Of all hospitals, that in which the greatest num-
ber of indigent sick are daily received is the Hotel
Dieu of Paris. It frequently contains four or five

74 Philosophical

thousand inmates at a time. It is at once the recepta-
cle of all the dreadful ills to which mankind are sub-
ject and the temple of true virtue, which consists in
relieving them.

It is impossible to avoid frequently drawing a
contrast between a fete at Versailles or an opera at
Paris, in which all the pleasures and all the splendors
of life are combined with the most exquisite art, and
a Hotel Dieu, where all that is painful, all that is
loathsome, and even death itself are accumulated in
one mass of horror. Such is the composition of great
cities ! By an admirable policy pleasures and luxury
are rendered subservient to misery and pain. The
theatres of Paris pay on an average the yearly sum
of a hundred thousand crowns to the hospital. It
often happens in these charitable institutions that the
inconveniences counterbalance the advantages. One
proof of the abuses attached to them is that patients
dread the very idea of being removed to them.

The Hotel Dieu, for example, was formerly well
situated, in the middle of the city, near the bishop's
palace. The situation now is very bad, for the city
has become overgrown ; four or five patients are
crowded into every bed, the victim of scurvy com-
municates it to his neighbor and in return receives
from him smallpox, and a pestilential atmosphere
spreads incurable disease and death, not only through
the building destined to restore men to healthful life
but through a great part of the city which surrounds
it.

Dictionary. 75

M. de Chamonsset, one of the most valuable and
active of citizens, has computed, from accurate au-
thorities, that in the Hotel Dieu, a fourth part of the
patients die, an eighth in the hospital of Charity, a
ninth in the London hospitals, and a thirtieth in those
of Versailles. In the great and celebrated hospital of
Lyons, which has long been one of the best conducted
in Europe, the average mortality has been found to
be only one-fifteenth. It has been often proposed to
divide the Hotel Dieu of Paris into smaller establish-
ments better situated, more airy, and salubrious, but
money has been wanting to carry the plan into exe-
cution.

Curiae nescio quid semper abest ret.

Money is always to be found when men are to be
sent to the frontiers to be destroyed, but when the ob-
ject is to preserve them it is no longer so. Yet the
Hotel Dieu of Paris has a revenue amounting to
more than a million (forty thousand pounds), and
every day increasing, and the Parisians have rivalled
each other in their endowments of it.

We cannot help remarking in this place that Ger-
main Brice, in his "Description of Paris," speaking
of some legacies bequeathed by the first president,
Bellievre, to the hall of the Hotel Dieu, named St.
Charles, says : "Every one ought to read the beauti-
ful inscription, engraved in letters of gold on a grand
marble tablet, and composed by Oliver Patru, one of
the choicest spirits of his time, some of whose plead-
ings are extant and in very high esteem.

76 Philosophical

"Whoever thou art that enterest this sacred place
thou wilt almost everywhere behold traces of the
charity of the great Pomponne. The gold and silver
tapestry and the exquisite furniture which formerly
adorned his apartments are now, by a happy meta-
morphosis, made to minister to the necessities of the
sick. That divine man, who was the ornament and
delight of his age, even in his conflict with death, con-
sidered how he might relieve the afflicted. The
blood of Bellievre was manifested in every action of
his life. The glory of his embassies is full well
known," etc.

The useful Chamousset did better than Germain
Brice, or than Oliver Patru, "one of the choicest
spirits of his time." He ofifered to undertake at his
own expense, backed by a responsible company, the
following contract:

The administrators of the Hotel Dieu estimated
the cost of every patient, whether killed or cured, at
fifty livres. M. Chamousset and the company ofifered
to undertake the business, on receiving fifty livres
on recovery only. The deaths were to be thrown out
of the account, of which the expenses were to be
borne by himself.

The proposal was so very advantageous that it
was not accepted. It was feared that he would not be
able to accomplish it. Every abuse attempted to be
reformed is the patrimony of those who have more
influence than the reformers.

A circumstance no less singular is that the Hotel

Dictionary. 77

Dieu alone has the privilege of selling meat in Lent,
for its own advantage and it loses money thereby.
M. Chamousset proposed to enter into a contract by
which the establishment would gain ; his offer was
rejected and the butcher, who was thought to have
suggested it to him, was dismissed.

Ainsi chez les humains,par un abus fatal,
Le bien le plus pa?-fait est la source die vial.

Thus serious ill, if tainted by abuse,

The noblest works of man will oft produce.

CHARLES IX.

Charles IX., king of France, was, we are told,
a good poet. It is quite certain that while he lived
his verses were admired. Brantome does not, in-
deed, tell us that this king was the best poet in Eu-
rope, but he assures us that "he made very genteel
quatrains impromptu, without thinking (for he had
seen several of them), and when it was wet or
gloomy weather, or very hot, he would send for the
poets into his cabinet and pass his time there with
them."

Had he always passed his time thus, and, above
all, had he made good verses, we should not have
had a St. Bartholomew, he would not have fired with
a carbine through his window upon his own sub-
jects, as if they had been a covey of partridges. Is it
not impossible for a good poet to be a barbarian ? I
am persuaded it is.

These lines, addressed in his name to Ronsard,
have been attributed to him :

7 8 Philosophical

La lyre, qui ravit par de si doux accords,
7e soianets les esprits dont je n'ai que les corps;
Le maitre elle f en rend, et te fait ititroduire
Oil le plus fier tyran ne pent avoir d' empire.

The lyre's delightful softly swelling lay
Subdues the mind, I but the body sway;
Make thee its master, thy sweet art can bind
What haughty tyrants cannot rule — the mind.

These lines are good. But are they his ? Are they

not his preceptor's? Here are some of his royal

imaginings, which are somewhat different :

Ilfaut sitivre ton roi qui taitne par sur tons
Pour les vers qui de toi coulent braves et doux ;
Et crois, situ tie viens me trouver a Pontoise,
Qiientre nous adviendra tine tres-grande fioise.

Know, thou must follow close thy king, who oft
Hath heard, and loves thee for, thy verse so soft;
Unless thou come and meet me at Pontoise,
Believe me, I shall make no little noise.

These are worthy the author of the massacre of
St. Bartholomew. Caesar's lines on Terence are
written with rather more spirit and taste ; they
breathe Roman urbanity. In those of Francis I. and
Charles IX. we nnd the barbarism of the Celts.
Would to God that Charles IX. had written more
verses, even though bad ones ! For constant appli-
cation to the fine arts softens the manners and dis-
pels ferocity:

EmoUit mores, nee sinit esse fcros.

Besides, the French languages scarcely began to
take any form until long after Charles IX. See such
of Francis I.'s letters as have been preserved : "Tout
est perdu hors I'honneur" — "All is lost save honor"
— was worthy of a chevalier. But the following is
neither in the style of Cicero nor in that of Caesar :

Dictionary. 79

"Tout a fleure ynsi que je me volois mettre 0 lit
est arrive Laval qui m'a aporte la sertenete dii leve-
ment du siege."

"All was going so well that, when I was going to
bed Laval arrived, and brought me the certainty of
the siege being raised."

We have letters from the hand of Louis XI IL,
which are no better written. It is not required of a
king to write letters like Pliny, or verses like Virgil ;
but no one can be excused from expressing himself
with propriety in his own tongue. Every prince that
writes like a lady's maid has been ill educated.

CHINA.

SECTION I.

We have frequently observed elsewhere, how
rash and injudicious it is to controvert with any
nation, such as the Chinese, its authentic pretensions.
There is no house in Europe, the antiquity of which
is so well proved as that of the Empire of China. Let
us figure to ourselves a learned Maronite of Mount
Athos questioning the nobility of the Morozini, the
Tiepolo, and other ancient houses of Venice ; of the
princes of Germany, of the Montmorencys, the Chat-
illons, or the Talleyrands, of France, under the pre-
tence that they are not mentioned in St. Thomas, or
St. Bonaventure. W^e must impeach either his sense
or his sincerity.

Many of the learned of our northern climes have
felt confounded at the antiquity claimed by the Chi-

8o Philosophical

nese. The question, however, is not one of learning.
Leaving all the Chinese literati, all the mandarins,
all the emperors, to acknowledge Fo-hi as one of the
first who gave laws to China, about two thousand
five hundred years before our vulgar era ; admit that
there must be people before there are kings. Allow
that a long period of time is necessary before a nu-
merous people, having discovered the necessary arts
of life, unite in the choice of a common governor.
But if you do not make these admissions, it is not of
the slightest consequence. Whether you agree with
us or not, we shall always believe that two and two
make four.

In a western province, formerly called Celtica,
the love of singularity and paradox has been carried
so far as to induce some to assert that the Chinese
were only an Egyptian, or rather perhaps a Phoenic-
ian colony. It was attempted to prove, in the same
way as a thousand other things have been proved,
that a king of Egypt, called Menes by the Greeks,
was the Chinese King Yu ; and that Atoes was Ki,
by the change of certain letters. In addition to
which, the following is a specimen of the reasoning
applied to the subject :

The Egyptians sometimes lighted torches at night.
The Chinese light lanterns : the Chinese are, there-
fore, evidently a colony from Egypt. The Jesuit
Parennin who had, at the time, resided five and
twenty years in China, and was master both of its
language and its sciences, has rejected all these fan-

Dictionary. 8t

cies with a happy mixture of elegance and sarcasm.
All the missionaries, and all the Chinese, on receiving
the intelligence that a country in the extremity of
the west was developing a new formation of the Chi-
nese Empire, treated it with a contemptuous ridicule.
Father Parennin replied with somewhat more seri-
ousness : "Your Egyptians," said he, "when going
to people China, must evidently have passed through
India." Was India at that time peopled or not? If
it was, would it permit a foreign army to pass
through it ? If it was not, would not the Egyptians
have stopped in India ? Would they have continued
their journey through barren deserts, and over al-
most impracticable mountains, till they reached
China, in order to form colonies there, when they
might so easily have established them on the fertile
banks of the Indus or the Ganges ?

The compilers of a universal history, printed in
England, have also shown a disposition to divest the
Chinese of their antiquity, because the Jesuits were
the first who made the world acquainted with China.
This is unquestionably a very satisfactory reason for
saying to a whole nation — "You are liars."

It appears to me a very important reflection,
which may be made on the testimony given by Con-
fucius,, to the antiquity of his nation ; and which is,
that Confucius had no interest in falsehood : he did
not pretend to be a prophet ; he claimed no inspira-
tion : he taught no new religion ; he used no delu-
sions ; flattered not the emperor under whom he
Vol. 7-. ?

82 Philosophical

lived : he did not even mention him. In short, he is

the only founder of institutions among mankind who

was not followed by a train of women.

I knew a philosopher who had no other portrait

than that of Confucius in his study. At the bottom

of it were written the following lines :

Without assumption he explored the mind,
Unveiled the light of reason to mankind;
Spoke as a sage, and never as a seer,
Yet, strange to say, his country held him dear.

I have read his books with attention ; I have made
extracts from them ; I have found in them nothing
but the purest moraHty, without the sHghtest tinge
of charlatanism. He lived six hundred years before
our vulgar era. His works were commented on by
the most learned men of the nation. If he had falsi-
fied, if he had introduced a false chronology, if he
had written of emperors who never existed, would
not some one have been found, in a learned nation,
who would have reformed his chronology? One
Chinese only has chosen to contradict him, and he
met with universal execration.

Were it worth our while, we might here compare
the great wall of China with the monuments of other
nations, which have never even approached it ; and
remark, that, in comparison with this extensive work,
the pyramids of Egypt are only puerile and useless
masses. We might dwell on the thirty-two eclipses
calculated in the ancient chronology of China, twen-
ty-eight of which have been verified by the mathema-
ticians of Europe. We might show, that the respect

Dictionary. 83

entertained by the Chinese for their ancestors is an
evidence that such ancestors have existed; and re-
peat the observation, so often made, that this rever-
ential respect has in so small degree impeded, among
this people, the progress of natural philosophy,
geometry, and astronomy.

It is sufficiently known, that they are, at the pres-
ent day, what we all were three hundred years ago,
very ignorant reasoners. The most learned Chinese
is like one of the learned of Europe in the fifteenth
century, in possession of his Aristotle. But it is pos-
sible to be a very bad natural philosopher, and at the
same time an excellent moralist. It is, in fact, in
morality, in political economy, in agriculture, in the
necessary arts of life, that the Chinese have made
such advances towards perfection. All the rest they
have been taught by us : in these we might well sub-
mit to become their disciples.

Of the Expulsion of the Missionaries from China.

Humanly speaking, independently of the service
which the Jesuits might confer on the Christian reli-
gion, are they not to be regarded as an ill-fated class
of men, in having travelled from so remote a distance
to introduce trouble and discord into one of the most
extended and best-governed kingdoms of the world ?
And does not their conduct involve a dreadful abuse
of the liberality and indulgence shown by the Ori-
entals, more particularly after the torrents of blood
shed, through their means, in the empire of Japan ?

84 Philosophical

A scene of horror, to prevent the consequence of
which the government believed it absolutely indis-
pensable to shut their ports against all foreigners.

The Jesuits had obtained permission of the em-
peror of China, Cam-hi, to teach the Catholic reli-
gion. They made use of it, to instil into the small
portion of the people under their direction, that it
was incumbent on them to serve no other master than
him who was the vicegerent of God on earth, and
who dwelt in Italy on the banks of a small river
called the Tiber ; that every other religious opinion,
every other worship, was an abomination in the sight
of God, and whoever did not believe the Jesuits
would be punished by Him to all eternity ; that their
emperor and benefactor, Cam-hi, w-ho could not even
pronounce the name of Christ, as the Chinese lan-
guage possesses not the letter "r," would suffer
eternal damnation ; that the Emperor Youtchin would
experience, without mercy, the same fate ; that all
the ancestors, both of Chinese and Tartars, would
incur a similar penalty ; that their descendants would
undergo it also, as well as the rest of the world ; and
that the reverend fathers, the Jesuits, felt a sincere
and paternal commiseration for the damnation of so
many souls.

They, at length, succeeded in making converts of
three princes of the Tartar race. In the meantime,
the Emperor Cam-hi died, towards the close of the
year 1722. He bequeathed the empire to his fourth
son, who has been so celebrated through the whole

Dictionary. 85

world for the justice and the wisdom of his govern-
ment, for the affection entertained for him by his
subjects, and for the expulsion of the Jesuits.

They began by baptizing the three princes, and
many persons of their household. These neophytes
had the misfortune to displease the emperor on some
points which merely respected military duty. About
this very period the indignation of the v^'hole empire
against the missionaries broke out into a flame. All
the governors of provinces, all the Colaos, presented
memorials against them. The accusations against
them were urged so far that the three princes, who
had become disciples of the Jesuits, were put into
irons.

It is clear that they were not treated with this
severity simply for having been baptized, since the
Jesuits themselves acknowledge in their letters, that
they experienced no violence, and that they were even
admitted to an audience of the emperor, who honored
them with some presents. It is evident, therefore,
that the Emperor Youtchin was no persecutor ; and,
if the princes were confined in a prison on the borders
of Tartary, while those who had converted them
were treated so liberally, it is a decided proof that
they were state prisoners, and not martyrs.

The emperor, soon after this, yielded to the sup-
plications of all his people. They petitioned that the
Jesuits might be sent away, as their abolition has
been since prayed for in France and other countries.
All the tribunals of China urged their being imme-

86 Philosophical

diately sent to Macao, which is considered as a place
without the limits of the empire, and the possession
of which has always been left to the Portuguese, with
a Chinese garrison.

Youtchin had the humanity to consult the tribu-
nals and governors, whether any danger could result
from conveying all the Jesuits to the province of Can-
ton. While awaiting the reply, he ordered three of
them to be introduced to his presence, and addressed
them in the following words, which Father Parennin,
with great ingenuousness, records : "Your Euro-
peans, in the province of Fo-Kien, intended to abol-
ish our laws, and disturbed our people. The tribu-
nals have denounced them before me. It is my posi-
tive duty to provide against such disorders : the good

of the empire requires it What would you

say were I to send over to your country a company
of bonzes and lamas to preach their law? How
would you receive them? .... If you deceived
my father, hope not also to deceive me. .... You
wish to make the Chinese Christians : your law, I
well know, requires this of you. But in case you
should succeed, what should we become? the sub-
jects of your kings. Christians believe none but you :
in a time of confusion they would listen to no voice
but yours. I know that, at present, there is nothing
to fear ; but on the arrival of a thousand, or perhaps
ten thousand vessels, great disturbances might ensue.

"China, on the north, joins the kingdom of Russia,
which is by no means contemptible ; to the south it

Dictionary. 87

has the Europeans, and their kingdoms, which are
still more considerable ; and to the west, the princes
of Tartary, with whom we have been at war eight

years Laurence Lange, companion of

Prince Ismailoff, ambassador from the czar, re-
quested that the Russians might have permission to
establish factories in each of the provinces. The per-
mission was confined to Pekin, and within the limits
of Calcas. In like manner I permit you to remain
here and at Canton as long as you avoid giving any
cause of complaint. Should you give any, I will not
sufifer you to remain either here or at Canton."

In the other provinces their houses and churches
were levelled to the ground. At length the clamor
against them redoubled. The charges most strenu-
ously insisted upon against them were, that they
weakened the respect of children for their parents,
by not paying the honors due to ancestors ; that they
indecently brought together young men and women
in retired places, which they called churches ; that
they made girls kneel before them, and enclosed
them with their legs, and conversed with them, while
in this posture, in undertones. To Chinese delicacy,
nothing appeared more revolting than this. Their
emperor, Youtchin, even condescended to inform the
Jesuits of this fact ; after which he sent away the
greater part of the missionaries to Macao, but with
all that polite attention which perhaps the Chinese
alone are capable of displaying.

Some Jesuits, possessed of mathematical science,

88 Philosophical

were retained at Pekin ; and among others, that same
Parennin whom we have mentioned ; and who, being
a perfect master both of the Chinese and of the Tar-
tar language, had been frequently employed as an in-
terpreter. Many of the Jesuits concealed themselves
in the distant provinces ; others even in Canton it-
self; and the afifair was connived at.

At length, after the death of the Emperor Yout-
chin, his son and successor, Kien-Lung, completed
the satisfaction of the nation by compelling all the
missionaries who were in concealment throughout
his empire to remove to Macao : a solemn edict pre-
vented them from ever returning. If any appear,
they are civilly requested to carry their talents some-
where else. There is nothing of severity, nothing of
persecution. I have been told that, in 1760, a Jesuit
having gone from Rome to Canton, and been in-
formed against by a Dutch factor, the Colao gov-
ernor of Canton had him sent away, presenting him
at the same time with a piece of silk, some provisions,
and money.

Of the pretended Atheism of China.

The charge of Atheism, alleged by our theologians
of the west, against the Chinese government at the
other end of the world, has been frequently exam-
ined, and is, it must be admitted, the meanest excess
of our follies and pedantic inconsistencies. It was
sometimes pretended, in one of our learned faculties,
that the Chinese tribunals or parliaments were idol-

Dictionary. 89

atrous ; sometimes that they acknowledged no divin-
ity whatever : and these reasoners occasionally
pushed their logic so far as to maintain that the
Chinese were, at the same time, atheists and idol-
aters.

In the month of October, 1700, the Sorbonne de-
clared every proposition which maintained that the
emperor and the Colaos believed in God to be hereti-
cal. Bulky volumes were composed in order to dem-
onstrate, conformably to the system of theological
demonstration, that the Chinese adored nothing but
the material heaven.

Nil p7-aeter nubes et coeli numen adorant.
They worship clouds and firmament alone.

But if they did adore the material heaven, that
was their God. They resembled the Persians, who
are said to have adored the sun : they resembled the
ancient Arabians, who adored the stars : they were
neither worshippers of idols nor atheists. But a
learned doctor, when it is an object to denounce from
his tripod any proposition as heretical or obnoxious,
does not distinguish with much clearness.

Those contemptible creatures who, in 1700, cre-
ated such a disturbance about the material heaven of
the Chinese, did not know that, in 1689, the Chinese,
having made peace with the Russians at Nicptchou,
which divides the two empires, erected, in Septem-
ber of the same year, a marble monument, on which
the following memorable words were engraved in
the Chhiese and Latin languages :

90 Philosophical

"Should any ever determine to rekindle the flames
of war, we pray the sovereign reign of all things,
who knows the heart, to punish their perfidy," etc.

A very small portion of modern history is suffi-
cient to put an end to these ridiculous disputes : but
those who believe that the duty of man consists in
writing commentaries on St. Thomas, or Scotus, can-
not condescend to inform themselves of what is going
on among the great empires of the world.

SECTION II.

We travel to China to obtain clay for porcelain,
as if we had none ourselves ; stufifs, as if we were
destitute of stufifs ; and a small herb to be infused in
water, as if we had no simples in our own countries.
In return for these benefits, we are desirous of con-
verting the Chinese. It is a very commendable zeal ;
but we must avoid controverting their antiquity, and
also calling them idolaters. Should we think it well
of a capuchin, if, after having been hospitably enter-
tained at the chateau of the Montmorencys, he en-
deavored to persuade them that they were new no-
bility, like the king's secretaries ; or accused them
of idolatry, because he found two or three statues of
constables, for whom they cherished the most pro-
found respect?

The celebrated Wolf, professor of mathematics
In the university of Halle, once delivered an excellent
discourse in praise of the Chinese philosophy. He
praised that ancient species of the human race, dififer-

Dictionary. 91

ing, as it does, in respect to the beard, the eyes, the
nose, the ears, and even the reasoning powers them-
selves ; he praised the Chinese, I say, for their adora-
tion of a supreme God, and their love of virtue. He
did that justice to the emperors of China, to the trib-
unals, and to the literati. The justice done to the
bonzes was of a different kind.

It is necessary to observe, that this Professor
Wolf had attracted around him a thousand pupils of
all nations. In the same university there was also a
professor of theology, who attracted no one. This
man, maddened at the thought of freezing to death
in his own deserted hall, formed the design, which
undoubtedly was only right and reasonable, of de-
stroying the mathematical professor. He scrupled
not, according to the practice of persons like himself,
to accuse him of not believing in God.

Some European writers, who had never been in
China, had pretended that the government of Pekin
was atheistical. Wolf had praised the philosophers
of Pekin ; therefore Wolf was an atheist. Envy
and hatred seldom construct the best syllogisms.
This argument of Lange, supported by a party and
by a protector, was considered conclusive by the sov-
ereign of the country, who despatched a formal di-
lemma to the mathematician. This dilemma gave
him the option of quitting Halle in twenty-four
hours, or of being hanged ; and as Wolf was a very
accurate reasoner, he did not fail to quit. His with-
drawing deprived the king of two or three hundred

92 Philosophical

thousand crowns a year, which were brought into
the kingdom in consequence of the wealth of this
philosopher's disciples.

This case should convince sovereigns that they
should not be over ready to listen to calumny, and
sacrifice a great man to the madness of a fool. But
let us return to China.

Why should we concern ourselves, we who live at
the extremity of the west — why should we dispute
with abuse and fury, whether there were fourteen
princes or not before Fo-hi, emperor of China, and
whether the said Fo-hi lived three thousand, or two
thousand nine hundred years before our vulgar era?
I should like to see two Irishmen quarrelling at Dub-
lin, about who was the owner, in the twelfth century,
of the estate I am now in possession of. Is it not
clear, that they should refer to me, who possess the
documents and titles relating to it ? To my mind, the
case is the same with respect to the first emperors of
China, and the tribunals of that country are the
proper resort upon the subject.

Dispute as long as you please about the fourteen
princes who reigned before Fo-hi, your very interest-
ing dispute cannot possibly fail to prove that China
was at that period populous, and that laws were in
force there. I now ask you, whether a people's being
collected together, under laws and kings, involves not
the idea of very considerable antiquity ? Reflect how
long a time is requisite, before by a singular concur-
rence of circumstances, the iron is discovered in the

Dictionary. 93

mine, before it is applied to purposes of agriculture,
before the invention of the shuttle, and all the arts
of life.

Some who multiply mankind by a dash of the pen,
have produced very curious calculations. The Jesuit
Petau, by a very singular computation, gives the
world, two hundred and twenty-five years after the
deluge, one hundred times as many inhabitants as
can be easily conceived to exist on it at present. The
Cumberlands and Whistons have formed calcula-
tions equally ridiculous ; had these worthies only
consulted the registers of our colonies in America,
they would have been perfectly astonished, and
would have perceived not only how slowly mankind
increase in number, but that frequently instead of
increasing they actually diminish.

Let us then, who are merely of yesterday, de-
scendants of the Celts, who have only just finished
clearing the forests of our savage territories, suffer
the Chinese and Indians to enjoy in peace their fine
climate and their antiquity. Let us, especially, cease
calling the emperor of China, and the souba of the
Deccan, idolaters. There is no necessity for being
a zealot in estimating Chinese merit. The constitu-
tion of their empire is the only one entirely estab-
lished upon paternal authority; the only one in
which the governor of a province is punished, if, on
quitting his station, he does not receive the acclama-
tions of the people ; the only one which has instituted
rewards for virtue, while, everywhere else, the sole

94 Philosophical

object of the laws is the punishment of crime ; the
only one which has caused its laws to be adopted by
its conc^uerors, while we are still subject to the cus-
toms of the Burgundians, the Franks, and the Goths,
by whom we were conquered. Yet, we must confess,
that the common people, guided by the bonzes, are
equally knavish with our own ; that everything is
sold enormously dear to foreigners, as among our-
selves ; that, with respect to the sciences, the Chinese
are just where we were two hundred years ago ; that,
like us, they labor under a thousand ridiculous preju-
dices ; and that they believe in talismans and judi-
cial astrology, as we long did ourselves.

We must admit also, that they were astonished at
our thermometer, at our method of freezing fluids by
means of saltpetre, and at all the experiments of
Torricelli and Otto von Guericke ; as we were also,
on seeing for the first time those curious processes.
We add, that their physicians do not cure mortal dis-
eases any more than our own ; and that minor dis-
eases, both here and in China, are cured by nature
alone. All this, however, does not interfere with the
fact, that the Chinese, for four thousand years, when
we were unable even to read, knew everything essen-
tially useful of which we boast at the present day.

I must again repeat, the religion of their learned
is admirable, and free from superstitions, from ab-
surd legends, from dogmas insulting both to reason
and nature, to which the bonzes give a thousand dif-
ferent meanings, because they really often have none.

Dictionary. 95

The most simple worship has appeared to them the
best, for a series of forty centuries. They are, what
we conceive Seth, Enoch, and Noah to have been ;
they are contented to adore one God in communion
with the sages of the world, while Europe is divided
between Thomas and Bonaventure, between Calvin
and Luther, between Jansenius and Molina.

CHRISTIANITY.

Establishment of Christianity, in its Civil and
Political State. — Section I.

God forbid that we should dare to mix the sacred
with the profane ! We seek not to fathom the depths
of the ways of Providence. We are men, and we ad-
dress men only.

When Antony, and after him Augustus, had given
Judaea to the Arabian, Herod — their creature and
their tributary — that prince, a stranger among the
Jews, became the most powerful of all kings. He
had ports on the Mediterranean — Ptolemais and
Ascalon ; he built towns ; he erected a temple to
Apollo at Rhodes, and one to Augustus in Caesarea ;
he rebuilt that of Jerusalem from the foundation,
and converted it into a strong citadel. Under his
rule, Palestine enjoyed profound peace. In short,
barbarous as he was to his family, and tyrannical
towards his people, whose substance he consumed in
the execution of his projects, he was looked upon as
a Messiah. He worshipped only Caesar, and he was
also worshipped by the Herodians.

96 Philosophical

The sect of the Jews had long been spread in
Europe and Asia; but its tenets were entirely un-
known. No one knew anything of the Jewish books,
although we are told that some of them had already
been translated into Greek, in Alexandria. The Jews
were known only as the Armenians are now known
to the Turks and Persians, as brokers and traders.
Further, a Turk never takes the trouble to inquire,
whether an Armenian is a Eutychian, a Jacobite, one
of St. John's Christians, or an Arian. The theism of
China, and the much to be respected books of Con-
fucius, were still less known to the nations of the
west, than the Jewish rites.

The Arabians, who furnished the Romans with
the precious commodities of India, had no more idea
of the theology of the Brahmins than our sailors
who go to Pondicherry or Madras. The Indian
women had from time immemorial enjoyed the priv-
ilege of burning themselves on the bodies of their
husbands ; yet these astonishing sacrifices, which are
still practised, were as unknown to the Jews as the
customs of America. Their books, which speak of
Gog and Magog, never mention India.

The ancient religion of Zoroaster was celebrated ;
but not therefore the more understood in the Roman
Empire. It was only known, in general, that the
magi admitted a resurrection, a hell, and a paradise ;
which doctrine must at that time have made its way
to the Jews bordering on Chaldsea ; since, in Herod's
time, Palestine was divided between the Pharisees,

Dictionary. 97

who began to believe the dogma of the resurrection,
and the Sadducees, who regarded it only with con-
tempt.

Alexandria, the most commercial city in the whole
world, was peopled with Egyptians, who worshipped
Serapis, and consecrated cats; with Greeks, who
philosophized; with Romans, who ruled; and with
Jews, who amassed wealth. All these people were
eagerly engaged in money-getting, immersed in
pleasure, infuriate with fanaticism, making and un-
making religious sects, especially during the external
tranquillity which they enjoyed when Augustus had
shut the temple of Janus.

The Jews were divided into three principal fac-
tions. Of these, the Samaritans called themselves
the most ancient, because Samaria (then Sebaste)
had subsisted, while Jerusalem, with its temple, was
destroyed under the Babylonian kings. But these
Samaritans were a mixture of the people of Persia
w'ith those of Palestine.

The second, and most powerful faction, was that
of the Hierosolymites. These Jews, properly so
called, detested the Samaritans, and were detested
by them. Their interests were all opposite. They
wished that no sacrifices should be offered but in the
temple of Jerusalem. Such a restriction would have
brought a deal of money into their city ; and, for this
very reason, the Samaritans would sacrifice nowhere
but at home. A small people, in a small town, may
have but one temple ; but when a people have ex-

Vol. 7-7

98 Philosophical

tended themselves over a country seventy leagues
long, by twenty-three wide, as the Jews had done —
when their territory is almost as large and populous
as Languedoc or Normandy, it Avould be absurd to
have but one church. What would the good people
of Montpellier say, if they could attend mass no-
where but at Toulouse ?

The third faction were the Hellenic Jews, consist-
ing chiefly of such as were engaged in trade or handi-
craft in Egypt and Greece. These had the same in-
terests with the Samaritans. Onias, the son of a high
priest, w^ishing to be a high priest like his father, ob-
tained permission from Ptolemy Philometor, king of
Egypt, and in particular from the king's wife, Cleo-
patra, to build a Jewish temple near Bubastis. He
assured Queen Cleopatra that Isaiah had foretold
that the Lord should one day have a temple on that
spot ; and Cleopatra, to whom he made a handsome
present, sent him word that, since Isaiah had said it,
it must be. This temple w^as called the Onion ; and
if Onias was not a great sacrificer, he commanded a
troop of militia. It was built one hundred and sixty
years before the Christian era. The Jews of Jerusa-
lem always held this Onion in abhorrence, as they did
the translation called the Septuagint. They even
instituted an expiatory feast for these two pretended
sacrileges. The rabbis of the Onion, mingling with
the Greeks, became more learned (in their way)
than the rabbis of Jerusalem and Samaria ; and the
three factions began to dispute on controversial

Dictionary. 99

questions, which necessarily make men subtle, false,
and unsocial.

The Egyptian Jews, in order to equal the austerity
of the Essenes, and the Judates of Palestine, estab-
lished, some time before the birth of Christianity, the
sect of the Therapeutae, who, like them, devoted
themselves to a sort of monastic life, and to mortifi-
cations. These different societies were imitations of
the old Egyptian, Persian, Thracian, and Greek mys-
teries, which had filled the earth, from the Euphrates
and the Nile to the Tiber. At first, such as were
initiated into these fraternities were few in number,
and were looked upon as privileged men ; but in the
time of Augustus, their number was very consider-
able ; so that nothing but religion was talked of, from
Syria to Mount Atlas and the German Ocean.

Amidst all these sects and worships, the school of
Plato had established itself, not in Greece alone, but
also in Rome, and especially in Egs'pt. Plato had
been considered as having drawn his doctrine from
the Egyptians, who thought that, in turning Plato's
ideas to account, his word, and the sort of trinity
discoverable in some of his works, they were but
claiming their own.

This philosophic spirit, spread at that time over
all the known countries of the west, seems to have
emitted, in the neighborhood of Palestine, at least a
few sparks of the spirit of reasoning. It is certain
that, in Herod's time, there were disputes on the
attributes of the divinity, on the immortality of the

lOO Philosophical

soul, and the resurrection of the body. The Jews re-
late, that Queen Cleopatra asked them whether we
were to rise again dressed or naked ?

The Jews, then, were reasoners in their way. The
exaggerating Josephus was, for a soldier, very
learned. Such being the case with a military man,
there must have been many a learned man in civil life.
His contemporary, Philo, would have had reputa-
tion, even among the Greeks. St. Paul's master,
Gamaliel, was a great controversialist. The authors
of the "Alishna" were polymathists.

The Jewish populace discoursed on religion. As,
at the present day, in Switzerland, at Geneva, in Ger-
many, in England, and especially in the Cevennes, we
find even the meanest of the inhabitants dealing in
controversy. Nay, more ; men from the dregs of the
people have founded sects : as Fox, in England ;
Miinzer, in Germany; and the first reformers in
France. Indeed, Mahomet himself, setting apart his
great courage, was nothing more than a camel-
driver.

Add to these preliminaries that, in Herod's time,
it was imagined, as is elsewhere remarked, that the
world was soon to be at an end. In those days, pre-
pared by divine providence, it pleased the eternal
Father to send His Son upon earth — an adorable and
incomprehensible mystery, which we presume not to
approach.

We only say, that if Jesus preached a pure mor-
ality ; if He announced the kingdom of heaven as the

Dictionary. loi

reward of the just ; if He had disciples attached to
His person and His virtues ; if those very virtues
drew upon Him the persecutions of the priests ; if,
through calumny, He was put to a shameful death;
His doctrine, constantly preached by His disciples,
would necessarily have a great effect in the world.
Once more let me repeat it — I speak only after the
manner of this world, setting the multitude of
miracles and prophecies entirely aside. I maintain
it, that Christianity was more likely to proceed by
His death, than if He had not been persecuted. You
are astonished that His disciples made other dis-
ciples. I should have been much more astonished, if
they Iiad not brought over a great many to their
party. Seventy individuals, convinced of the inno-
cence of their leader, the purity of His manners, and
the barbarity of His judges, must influence many a
feeling heart.

St. Paul, alone, became (for whatever reason) the
enemy of his master Gamaliel, must have had it in
his power to bring Jesus a thousand adherents, even
supposing Jesus to have been only a worthy and op-
pressed man. Paul was learned, eloquent, vehem-
ent, indefatigable, skilled in the Greek tongue, and
seconded by zealots much more interested than him-
self in defending their Master's reputation. St.
Luke was an Alexandrian Greek, and a man of let-
ters, for he was a physician.

The first chapter of John displays a Platonic sub-
limity, which must have been gratifying to the Pla-

102 Philosophical

tonists of Alexandria, And indeed there was even
formed in that city a school founded by Luke, or by
Mark (either the evangeHst or some other), and
perpetuated by Athenagoras, Pantsenus, Origen, and
Clement — all learned and eloquent. This school once
established, it was impossible for Christianity not to
.nake rapid progress.

Greece, Syria, and Egypt, were the scenes of those
celebrated ancient mysteries, which enchanted the
minds of the people. The Christians, too, had their
mysteries, in which men would eagerly seek to be
initiated ; and if at first only through curiosity, this
curiosity soon became persuasion. The idea of the
approaching end of all things was especially cal-
culated to induce the new disciples to despise the
transitory goods of this life, which were so soon to
perish with them. The example of the Therapeutse
was an incitement to a solitary and mortified life.
All these things, then, powerfully concurred in the
establishment of the Christian religion.

The different flocks of this great rising society
could not, it is true, agree among themselves. Fifty-
four societies had fifty-four different gospels ; all
secret, like their mysteries ; all unknown to the Gen-
tiles, who never saw our four canonical gospels until
the end of two hundred and fifty years. These vari-
ous flocks, though divided, acknowledged the same
pastor. Ebionites, opposed to St. Paul ; Nazarenes,
disciples of Hymeneos, Alexandros, and Hermo-
genes; Carpocratians, Basilidians, Valentinians,

Dictionary. 103

Marcionites, SabelHans, Gnostics, Montanists — a
hundred sects, rising one against another, and cast-
ing mutual reproaches, were nevertheless all united
in Jesus ; all called upon Jesus ; all made Jesus the
great object of their thoughts, and reward of their
travails.

The Roman Empire, in which all these societies
were formed, at first paid no attention to them.
They were known at Rome only by the general name
of Jews, about whom the government gave itself no
concern. The Jews had, by their money, acquired
the right of trading. In the reign of Tiberius four
thousand of them were driven out of Rome ; in that
of Nero the people charged them and the new demi-
Christian Jews with the burning of Rome.

They were again expelled in the reign of
Claudius, but their money always procured them re-
admission ; they were quiet and despised. The
Christians of Rome were not so numerous as those
of Greece, Alexandria and Syria. The Romans in
the earlier ages had neither fathers of the church nor
heresiarchs. The farther they were from the birth-
place of Christianity, the fewer doctors and writers
were to be found among them. The church was
Greek ; so much so, that every mystery, every rite,
every tenet, was expressed in the Greek tongue.

All Christians, whether Greek, Syrian, Roman, or
Egyptian, were considered as half Jewish. This
was another reason for concealing their books from
the Gentiles, that they might remain united and im-

I04 Philosophical

penetrable. Their secret was more inviolably kept
than that of the mysteries of Isis or of Ceres ; they
were a repubhc apart — a state within the state. They
had no temples, no altars, no sacrifice, no public
ceremony. They elected their secret superiors by a
majority of voices. These superiors, under the title
of ancients, priests, bishops, or deacons, managed
the common purse, took care of the sick and pacified
quarrels. Among them it was a shame and a crime
to plead before the tribunals or to enhst in the armed
force ; and for a hundred years there was not a
single Christian in the armaes of the empire.

Thus, retired in the midst of the world and un-
known even when they appeared, they escaped the
tyranny of the proconsuls and praetors and were free
amid the public slavery. It is not known who wrote

the famous book entitled "TcZiv 'irroordAcyv JtSaxai^^

(the ApostoHcal Constitutions), as it is unknown
who were the authors of the fifty rejected gospels, of
the Acts of St. Peter, of the Testament of the Twelve
Patriarchs, and of so many other writings of the
first Christians ; but it is Hkely that the "Constitu-
tions" are of the second century. Though falsely at-
tributed to the apostles, they are very valuable. They
show us what were the duties of a bishop chosen by
the Christians, how they were to reverence him, and
what tribute they were to pay him. The bishop
could have but one wdfe, who was to take good care

of his household : '^Mia^ avSpa ysysvo/isvov yuvauot;
fiovnydfjLOu xdXov rod idtou or/.ou TTpnsffrSza.^^

Dictionary. 105

Rich Christians were exhorted to adopt the chil-
dren of poor ones. Collections were made for the
widows and orphans; but the money of sinners
was rejected; and, nominally, an innkeeper was not
permitted to give his mite. It is said that they were
regarded as cheats ; for which reason very few tav-
ern-keepers were Christians. This also prevented
the Christians from frequenting the taverns; thus
completing their separation from the society of the
Gentiles.

The dignity of deaconess being attainable by the
women, they were the more attached to the Christian
fraternity. They were consecrated ; the bishop
anointing them on the forehead, as of old the Jewish
kings were anointed. By how many indissoluble
ties were the Christians bound together !

The persecutions, which were never more than
transitory, did but serve to redouble their zeal and
inflame their fervor ; so that, under Diocletian, one-
third of the empire was Christian. Such were a few
of the human causes that contributed to the progress
of Christianity. If to these we add the divine causes,
which are to the former as infinity to unity, there is
only one thing which can surprise us ; that a religion
so true did not at once extend itself over the two
hemispheres, not excepting the most savage islet.

God Himself came down from heaven and died ta
redeem mankind and extirpate sin forever from the
face of the earth; and yet he left the greater part
of mankind a prey to error, to crime, and to the devil.

io6 Philosophical

This, to our weak intellects, appears a fatal contra-
diction. But it is not for us to question Providence ;
our duty is to humble ourselves in the dust before it.

SECTION II.

Several learned men have testified their surprise
at not finding in the historian. Flavins Josephus,
any mention of Jesus Christ; for all men of true
learning are now agreed that the short passage rela-
tive to him in that history has been interpolated.
The father of Flavins Josephus must, however, have
been witness to all the miracles of Jesus. Josephus
was of the sacerdotal race and akin to Herod's wife,
Mariamne. He gives us long details of all that
prince's actions, yet says not a word of the life or
death of Jesus ; nor does this historian, who dis-
guises none of Herod's cruelties, say one word of
the general massacre of the infants ordered by him
on hearing that there was born a king of the Jews.
The Greek calendar estimates the number of children
murdered on this occasion at fourteen thousand.
This is, of all actions of all tyrants, the most horri-
ble. There is no example of it in the history of the
whole world.

Yet the best writer the Jews have ever had, the
only one esteemed by the Greeks and Romans, makes
no mention of an event so singular and so frightful.
He says nothing of the appearance of a new star in
the east after the birth of our Saviour — a. brilliant
phenomenon, which could not escape the knowledge

Dictionary. 107

of a historian so enlightened as Josephus. He is
also silent respecting the darkness which, on our
Saviour's death, covered the whole earth for three
hours at midday — the great number of graves that
opened at that moment, and the multitude of the
just that rose again.

The learned are constantly evincing their sur-
prise that no Roman historian speaks of these prodi-
gies, happening in the empire of Tiberius, under the
eyes of a Roman governor and a Roman garrison,
who must have sent to the emperor and the senate a
detailed account of the most miraculous event that
mankind had ever heard of. Rome itself must have
been plunged for three hours in impenetrable dark-
ness ; such a prodigy would have had a place in the
annals of Rome, and in those of every nation. But
it was not God's will that these divine things should
be written down by their profane hands.

The same persons also find some difficulties in the
gospel history. They remark that, in Matthew,
Jesus Christ tells the scribes and pharisees that all
the innocent blood that has been shed upon earth,
from that of Abel the Just down to that of Zachary,
son of Barac, whom they slew between the temple
and the altar, shall be upon their heads.

There is not (say they) in the Hebrew history
any Zachary slain in the temple before the coming
of the Messiah, nor in His time, but in the history
of the siege of Jerusalem, by Josephus, there is a
Zachary, son of Barac, slain by the faction of the

io8 Philosophical

Zelotes. This is in the nineteenth chapter of the
fourth book. Hence they suspect that the gospel
according to St. Matthew was written after the
taking of Jerusalem by Titus, But every doubt,
every objection of this kind, vanishes when it is con-
sidered how great a difference there must be between
books divinely inspired and the books of men. It
was God's pleasure to envelop alike in awful ob-
scurity His birth, His life, and His death. His ways
are in all things different from ours.

The learned have also been much tormented by
the difference between the two genealogies of Jesus
Christ. St. Matthew makes Joseph the son of Jacob,
Jacob of Matthan, Matthan of Eleazar. St. Luke, on
the contrary, says that Joseph was the son of Heli,
Heli of Matthat, Matthat of Levi, Levi of Melchi,
etc. They will not reconcile the fifty-six progenitors
up to Abraham, given to Jesus by Luke, with the
forty-two other forefathers up to the same Abraham,
given him by Matthew ; and they are quite staggered
by Matthew's giving only forty-one generations,
while he speaks of forty-two. They start other dif-
ficulties about Jesus being the son, not of Joseph,
but of Mary. They moreover raise some doubts re-
specting our Saviour's miracles, quoting St. Au-
gustine, St. Hilary, and others, who have given to
the accounts of these miracles a mystic or allegorical
sense; as, for example, to the fig tree cursed and
blasted for not having borne figs when it was not the

Dictionary, 109

fig season ; the devils sent into the bodies of swine
in a country where no swine were kept ; the water
changed into wine at the end of a feast, when the
guests were already too much heated. But all these
learned critics are confounded by the faith, which
is but the purer for their cavils. The sole design of
this article is to follow the historical thread and
give a precise idea of the facts about which there is
no dispute.

First, then, Jesus was born under the Mosaic
law ; He was circumcised according to that law ; He
fulfilled all its precepts ; He kept all its feasts ; He
did not reveal the mystery of His incarnation ; He
never told the Jews He was born of a virgin ; He
received John's blessing in the waters of the Jordan,
a ceremony to which various of the Jews submitted ;
but He never baptized any one ; He never spoke of
the seven sacraments ; He instituted no ecclesiastical
hierarchy during His life. He concealed from His
contemporaries that He was the Son of God, be-
gotten from all eternity, consubstantial with His
Father ; and that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the
Father and the Son. He did not say that His person
was composed of two natures and two wills. He left
these mysteries to be announced to men in the course
of time by those who were to be enlightened by the
Holy Ghost. So long as He lived. He departed in
nothing from the law of His fathers. In the eyes of
men He was no more than a just man, pleasing to

1 1 o Philosophical

God, persecuted by the envious and condemned to
death by prejudiced magistrates. He left His holy
church, established by Him, to do all the rest.

Let us consider the state of religion in the Roman
Empire at that period. Mysteries and expiations
were in credit almost throughout the earth. The em-
perors, the great, and the philosophers, had, it is
true, no faith in these mysteries ; but the people, who,
in religious matters, give the law to the great, im-
posed on them the necessity of conforming in ap-
pearance to their worship. To succeed in chaining
the multitude you must seem to wear the same fet-
ters. Cicero himself was initiated in the Eleusinian
mysteries. The knowledge of only one God was the
principal tenet inculcated in these mysteries and
magnificent festivals. It is undeniable that the
prayers and hymns handed down to us as belonging
to these mysteries are the most pious and most ad-
mirable of the relics of paganism. The Christians,
who likewise adored only one God, had thereby
greater facility in converting some of the Gentiles.
Some of the philosophers of Plato's sect became
Christians ; hence in the three first centuries the
fathers of the church were all Platonists.

The inconsiderate zeal of some of them in no
way detracts from the fundamental truths. St.
Justin, one of the primitive fathers, has been re-
proached with having said, in his commentary on
Isaiah, that the saints should enjoy, during a reign
of a thousand years on earth, every sensual pleasure.

Dictionary. 1 1 1

He has been charged with criminahty in saying, in his
"Apology for Christianity," that God, having made
the earth, left it in the care of the angels, who, having
fallen in love with the women, begot children, which
are the devils.

Lactantius, with other fathers, has been con-
demned for having supposed oracles of the sibyls.
He asserted that the sibyl Erythrea made four Greek
lines, which rendered literally are :

With five loaves and two fishes
He shall feed five thousand men in the desert;
And, gathering up the fragments that remain,
With them he shall fill twelve baskets.

The primitive Christians have been reproached
with inventing some acrostic verses on the name
Jesus Christ and attributing them to an ancient sibyl.
They have also been reproached with forging letters
from Jesus Christ to the king of Edessa, dated at a
time when there was no king in Edessa ; with having
forged letters of Mary, letters of Seneca to Paul,
false gospels, false miracles, and a thousand other
impostures.

We have, moreover, the history or gospel of the
nativity and marriage of the Virgin Mary ; wherein
we are told that she was brought to the temple at
three years old and walked up the stairs by herself.
It is related that a dove came down from heaven to
give notice that it was Joseph who was to espouse
Mary. We have the protogospel of James, brother
of Jesns by Joseph's first wife. It is there said that

112 Philosophical

when Joseph complained of Mary's having become
pregnant in his absence, the priests made each of
them drink the water of jealousy, and both were de-
clared innocent.

We have the gospel of the Infancy, attributed to
St. Thomas. According to this gospel, Jesus, at
five years of age, amused himself, like other children
of the same age, with moulding clay, and making it,
among other things, into the form of little birds.
He was reproved for this, on which he gave life to the
birds, and they flew away. Another time, a little boy
having beaten him, was struck dead on the spot. We
have also another gospel of the Infancy in Arabic,
which is much more serious.

We have a gospel of Nicodemus. This one seems
more worthy of attention, for we find in it the names
of those who accused Jesus before Pilate. They
were the principal men of the synagogue — Ananias,
Caiaphas, Sommas, Damat, Gamaliel, Judah, Neph-
thalim. In this history there are some things that are
easy to reconcile with the received gospels, and
others which are not elsewhere to be found. We
here find that the woman cured of a flux was called
Veronica. We also find all that Jesus did in hell
when He descended thither. Then we have the
two letters supposed to have been written by Pilate
to Tiberius concerning the execution of Jesus ; but
their bad Latin plainly shows that they are spurious.
To such a length was this false zeal carried that vari-
ous letters were circulated attributed to Jesus Christ.

Dictionary. 113

The letter is still preserved which he is said to have
written to Abgarus, king of Edessa ; but, as already
remarked, there had at that time ceased to be a king
of Edessa.

Fifty gospels were fabricated and were afterwards
declared apocryphal. St. Luke himself tells us that
many persons had composed gospels. It has been be-
lieved that there was one called the Eternal Gospel,
concerning which it is said in the Apocalypse, chap,
xiv., "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of
heaven, having the everlasting gospel." .... In
the thirteenth century the Cordeliers, abusing these
words, composed an "eternal gospel," by which the
reign of the Holy Ghost was to be substituted for
that of Jesus Christ. But never in the early ages of
the church did any book appear with this title. Let-
ters of the Virgin were likewise invented, written to
Ignatius the martyr, to the people of Messina, and
others.

Abdias, who immediately succeeded the apostles,
wrote their history, with which he mixed up such
absurd fables that in time these histories became
wholly discredited, although they had at first a great
reputation. To Abdias we are indebted for the ac-
count of the contest between St. Peter and Simon
the magician. There was at Rome, in reality, a very
skilful mechanic named Simon, who not only made
things fly across the stage, as we still see done, but
moreover revived in his own person the prodigy at-
tributed to Daedalus. He made himself wings; he
Vol. 7—8

114 Philosophical

flew ; and, like Icarus, he fell. So say Pliny and
Suetonius.

Abdias, who was in Asia and wrote in Hebrew,
tells us that Peter and Simon met at Rome in the
reign of Nero. A young man, nearly related to the
emperor, died, and the whole court begged that
Simon would raise him to life. St. Peter presented
himself to perform the same operation. Simon em-
ployed all the powers of his art, and he seemed to
have succeeded, for the dead man moved his head.
"This is not enough," cries Peter; "the dead man
must speak ; let Simon leave the bedside and we
shall see whether the young man is alive." Simon
went aside and the deceased no longer stirred, but
Peter brought him to life with a single word.

Simon went and complained to the emperor that
a miserable Galilean had taken upon himself to work
greater wonders than he. Simon was confronted
wdth Peter and they made a trial of skill. "Tell me,"
said Simon to Peter, "what I am thinking of?" "If,"
returned Peter, "the emperor will give me a barley
loaf, thou shalt find whether or not I know what thou
hast in thy heart." A loaf was given him ; Simon
immediately caused two large dogs to appear and
they wanted to devour it. Peter threw them the loaf,
and while they were eating it he said : "Well, did I
not know thy thoughts ? thou wouldst have had thy
dogs devour me."

After this first sitting it was proposed that Simon
and Peter should make a flying-match, and try which

Dictionary. 1 1 ^

could raise himself highest in the air. Simon tried
first ; Peter made the sign of the cross and down
came Simon and broke his legs. This story was
imitated from that which we find in the "Sepher
toldos Jeschut," where it is said that Jesus Himself
flew, and that Judas, who would have done the same^
fell headlong. Nero, vexed that Peter had broken
his favorite, Simon's, legs, had him crucified with his
head downwards. Hence the notion of St. Peter's res-
idence at Rome, the manner of his execution and his
sepulchre.

The same Abdias established the belief that St.
Thomas went and preached Christianity in India to
King Gondafer, and that he went thither as an arch-
itect. The number of books of this sort, written in
the early ages of Christianity, is prodigious.

St. Jerome, and even St. Augustine, tell us that
the letters of Seneca and St. Paul are quite authentic.
In the first of these letters Seneca hopes his brother
Paul is well : "Bene te valerc, f rater, cnpio." Paul
does not write quite so good Latin as Seneca: 'T
received your letters yesterday," says he, "with joy."
— "Litteras tiias hilaris accepi." — "And I would
have answered them immediately had I had the pres-
ence of the young man whom I would have sent with
them." — "Si prcEsentiam juvenis hahuissem." Un-
fortunately these letters, in which one would look for
instruction, are nothing more than compliments.

All these falsehoods, forged by ill-informed and
mistakenly-zealous Christians, were in no degree

Ii6 Philosophical

prejudicial to the truth of Christianity; they ob-
structed not its progress ; on the contrary, they show
us that the Christian society was daily increasing
and that each member was desirous of hastening its
growth.

The Acts of the Apostles do not tell us that the
apostles agreed on a symbol. Indeed, if they had
put together the symbol (the creed, as we now call
it), St. Luke could not in his history have omitted
this essential basis of the Christian religion. The
substance of the creed is scattered through the gos-
pels ; but the articles were not collected until long
after.

In short, our creed is, indisputably, the belief of
the apostles ; but it was not written by them. Ru-
finus, a priest of Aquileia, is the first who mentions
it ; and a homily attributed to St. Augustine is the
first record of the supposed way in which this creed
was made ; Peter saying, when they were assembled,
"I believe in God the Father Almighty" — Andrew,
"and in Jesus Christ" — James, "who was conceiv€d
by the Holy Ghost" ; and so of the rest.

This formula was called in Greek symbolos; and
in Latin collatio. Only it must be observed that the
Greek version has it : "I believe in God the Father,
maker of heaven and earth." In the Latin, maker,
former, is rendered by "creatorem." But afterwards,
in translating the symbol of the First Council of
Nice, it was rendered by "factorem."

Constantine assembled at Nice, opposite Constan-

Dictionary. iiy

tinople, the first ecumenical council, over which Ozius
presided. The great question touching the divinity
of Jesus Christ, which so much agitated the church,
was there decided. One party held the opinion of
Origen, who says in his sixth chapter against Celsus,
"We ofi'er our prayers to God through Christ, who
holds the middle place between natures created and
uncreated ; who leads us to the grace of His Father
and presents our prayers to the great God in quality
of our high priest." These disputants also rest upon
many passages of St. Paul, some of which they
quote. They depend particularly upon these words
of Jesus Christ : "My Father is greater than I" ;
and they regard Jesus as the first-born of the crea-
tion; as a pure emanation of the Supreme Being,
but not precisely as God,

The other side, who were orthodox, produced
passages more conformable to the eternal divinity of
Jesus; as, for example, the following : "My Father
and I are one" ; words which their opponents inter-
pret as signifying : "My Father and I have the same
object, the same intention ; I have no other will than
that of My Father." Alexander, bishop of Alexan-
dria, and after him Athanasius, were at the head of
the orthodox ; and Eusebitis, bishop of Nicomedia,
with seventeen other bishops, the priest Arius, and
many more priests, led the party opposed to them.
The quarrel was at first exceedingly bitter, as St.
Alexander treated his opponents as so many anti-
christs.

1 1 8 Philosophical

At last, after much disputation, the Holy Ghost
decided in the council, by the mouths of two hundred
and ninety-nine bishops, against eighteen, as follows :
"Jesus is the only Son of God ; begotten of the
Father ; light of light ; very God of very God ; of
one substance with the Father. We believe also in
the Holy Ghost," etc. Such was the decision of the
council ; and we perceive by this fact how the bishops
carried it over the simple priests. Two thousand
persons of the latter class were of the opinion of
Arius, according to the account of two patriarchs of
Alexandria, who have written the annals of Alexan-
dria in Arabic. Arius was exiled by Constantine, as
was Athanasius soon after, when Arius was recalled
to Constantinople. Upon this event St. Macarius
prayed so vehemently to God to terminate the life of
Arius before he could enter the cathedral, that God
heard his prayer — Arius dying on his way to church
in 330. The Emperor Constantine ended his life in
337. He placed his will in the hands of an Arian
priest and died in the arms of the Arian leader, Euse-
bius, bishop of Nicomedia, not receiving baptism
until on his deathbed, and leaving a triumphant, but
divided church. The partisans of Athanasius and
of Eusebius carried on a cruel war ; and what is
called Arianism was for a long time established in all
the provinces of the empire.

Julian the philosopher, surnamed the apostate,
wished to stifle their divisions, but could not suc-
ceed. The second general council was held at Con-

Dictionary. 1 1 9

stantinople in 138 1. It was there laid down that the
Council of Nice had not decided quite correctly in
regard to the Holy Ghost ; and it added to the Nicene
creed that "the Holy Ghost was the giver of life and
proceeded from the Father, and with the Father and
Son is to be worshipped and glorified." It was not
until towards the ninth century that the Latin church
decreed that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the
Father and the Son.

In the year 431, the third council-general, held at
Ephesus, decided that Jesus had "two natures and
one person." Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople,
who maintained that the Virgin Mary should be.
entitled Mother of Christ, was called Judas by the
council ; and the "two natures" were again confirmed
by the council of Chalcedon.

I pass lightly over the following centuries, which
are sufficiently known. Unhappily, all these disputes
led to wars, and the church was uniformly obliged
to combat. God, in order to exercise the patience of
the faithful, also allowed the Greek and Latin
churches to separate in the ninth century. He like-
wise permitted in the east no less than twenty-nine
horrible schisms with the see of Rome.

If there be about six hundred millions of men
upon earth, as certain learned persons pretend, the
holy Roman Catholic church possesses scarcely six-
teen millions of them — about a twenty-sixth part
of the inhabitants of the known world.

I20 Philosophical

CHRISTMAS.

Every one knows that this is the feast of the
nativity of Jesus. The most ancient feast kept in the
church, after those of Easter and Pentecost, was
that of the baptism of Jesus. There were only these
three feasts, until St. Chrysostom delivered his
homily on Pentecost. We here make no account of
the feasts of the martyrs, which were of a very in-
ferior order. That of the baptism of Jesus was
named the Epiphany, an imitation of the Greeks, who
gave that name to the feasts which they held to corri-
memorate the appearance or manifestation of the
gods upon earth — since it was not until after his bap-
tism that Jesus began to preach the gospel.

We know not whether, about the end of the fourth
century, this feast was solemnized in the Isle of
Cyprus on the 6th of November ; but St. Epiphanius
maintained that Jesus was born on that day. St.
Clement of Alexandria tells us that the Basilidians
held this feast on the 15th of the month tybi, while
others held it on the i ith of the same month ; that is,
it was kept by some on the loth of January, and by
others on the 6th ; the latter opinion is the one now
adopted. As for the nativity, as neither the day nor
the month nor the year of it was known, it was not
celebrated.

According to the remarks which we find appended
to the works of the same father, they who have been
the most curious in their researches concerning the

Dictionarye 12 1

day on which Jesus was born, some said that it was
on the 25th of the Egyptian month pachon, answer-
ing to the 20th of May ; others that it was the 24th
or 25th of pharmuthi, corresponding to the 19th and
20th of April. The learned M, de Beausobre says
that these latter were the days of St. Valentine. Be
this as it may, Egypt and the East kept the feast of
the birth of Jesus on the 6th of January, the same
day as that of His baptism ; without it being known
(at least with certainty) when, or for what reason,
this custom commenced.

The opinion and practice of the western nations
were quite different from those of the east. The
centuriators of Alagdeburg repeat a passage in
Theophilus of Caesarea, which makes the churches of
Gaul say : "Since the birth of Christ is celebrated on
the 25th of December, on whatever day of the week
it may fall, so also should the resurrection of Jesus
be celebrated on the 25th of March, whatever day of
the week it may be, the Lord having risen again on
that day."

If this be true, it must be acknowledged that the
bishops of Gaul were very prudent and very reason-
able. Being persuaded, as all the ancients were, that
Jesus had been crucified on the 23d of March, and
had risen again on the 25th, they commemorated His
death on the 23d and His resurrection on the 25th,
without paying any regard to the observance of the
full moon, which was originally a Jewish ceremony,
and without confining themselves to the Sunday.

122 Philosophical

Had the church imitated them, she would have
avoided the long and scandalous disputes which
nearly separated the East from the West, and were
not terminated until the First Council of Nice.

Some of the learned conjecture that the Romans
chose the winter solstice for holding the birth of
Jesus, because the sun then begins again to approach
our hemisphere. In Julius Caesar's time the civil and
political solstice was fixed for the 25th of December.
This at Rome was a festival in celebration of the re-
turning sun. Pliny tells us that it was called hruma;
and, like Servius, places it on the 8th of the calends
of January. This association might have some con-
nection with the choice of the day, but it was not the
origin of it. A passage in Josephus (evidently
forged), three or four errors of the ancients, and a
very mystical explanation of a saying of St. John
the Baptist, determined this choice, as Joseph Scal-
iger is about to inform us.

It pleased the ancients (says that learned critic)
to suppose — first, that Zacharias was sovereign sac-
rificer when Jesus was born. But nothing is more
untrue ; it is no longer believed by any one, at least
among those of any information.

Secondly — the ancients supposed that Zacharias
w'as in the holy of holies, offering incense, when the
angel appeared to him and announced the birth of
a son.

Thirdly — as the sovereign sacrificer entered the
temple but once a year, on the day of expiation, which

Dictionary. 123

was the loth of the Jewish month rifri, partly answer-
ing to the month of September, the ancients supposed
that it was the 27th ; and that afterwards, on the 23d
or 24th, Zacharias having returned home after the
feast, EHzabeth, his wife, conceived John the Baptist ;
when the feast of the conception of that saint was
fixed for those days. As women ordinarily go with
child for two hundred and seventy or two hundred
and seventy-four days, it followed that the nativity
of John was fixed for the 24th of June. Such was
the origin of St. John's day, and of Christmas day,
which was regulated by it.

Fourthly — it was supposed that there were six
entire months between the conception of John the
Baptist and that of Jesus ; although the angel sim-
ply tells Mary that Elizabeth was then in the sixth
month of her pregnancy ; consequently the concep-
tion of Jesus was fixed for the 25th of March ; and
from these various suppositions it was concluded
that Jesus must have been born on the 25th of De-
cember, precisely nine months after his conception.

There are many wonderful things in these ar-
rangements. It is not one of the least worthy of ad-
miration, that the four cardinal points of the year —
the equinoxes and the solstices, as they were then
fixed — were marked by the conceptions and births of
John the Baptist and Jesus. But it is yet more mar-
vellous and worthy of remark, that the solstice when
Jesus was born is that at which the days begin to
increase ; while that on which John the Baptist came

1 24 Philosophical

into the world was the period at which they begin to
shorten. The holy forerunner had intimated this
in a very mystical manner, when speaking of Jesus,
in these w^ords : "He must grow, and I must become
less."

Prudentius alludes to this in a hymn on the nativ-
ity of our Lord. Yet St. Leo says that in his time
there were persons in Rome who said the feast was
venerable, not so much on account of the birth of
Jesus as of the return, and, as they expressed
it, the new birth of the sun. St. Epiphanius assures
us it was fully established that Jesus was born on
the 6th of January ; but St. Clement of Alexandria,
much more ancient and more learned than he, fixes the
birth on the i8th of November, of the twenty-eighth
year of Augustus. This is deduced, according to the
Jesuit Petau's remark on St. Epiphanius, from these
words of St. Clement: "The whole time from the
birth of Jesus Christ to the death of Commodus was
a hundred and ninety-four years, one month and
thirteen days." Now Commodus died, according to
Petau, on the last of December, in the year 192 of
our era ; therefore, according to St. Clement, Jesus
was born one month and thirteen days before
the last of December; consequently, on the i8th
of November, in the twenty-eighth year of the
reign of Augustus. Concerning which it must be
observed that St. Clement dates the reign of Au-
gustus only from the death of Antony and the cap-
ture of Alexandria, because it was not until then that

Dictionary. 125

Augustus was left the sole master of the empire.
Thus we are no more assured of the year of this
birth than we are of the month or the day. Though
St. Luke declares, "that He had perfect understand-
ing of all things from the very first," he clearly
shows that he did not know the exact age of Jesus
when He says that, when baptized, He "began to be
about thirty years old." Indeed, this evangelist
makes Jesus born in the year of the numbering
which, according to him, was made by Cyrenus or
Cyrenius, governor of Syria; while, according to
Tertullian, it was made by Sentius Saturninus. But
Saturninus had quitted the province in the last year
of Herod, and, as Tacitus informs us, was succeeded
by Quintilius Varus ; and Publius Sulpicius Quirinus
or Quirinius, of whom it would seem St. Luke means
to speak, did not succeed Quintilius Varus until about
ten years after Herod's death, when Archelaus, king
of Judaea, was banished by Augustus, as Josephus
tells us in his "Jewish Antiquities."

It is true that Tertullian, and St. Justin before
him, referred the pagans and the heretics of their time
to the public archives containing the registers of this
pretended numbering ; but Tertullian likewise re-
ferred to the public archives for the account of the
darkness at noonday at the time of the passion of
Jesus, as will be seen in the article on "Eclipse" ;
where we have remarked the want of exactness in
these two fathers, and in similar authorities, in our
observations on a statue which St. Justin — who as-

126 Philosophical

sures us that he saw it at Rome — says was dedicated
to Simon the magician, but which was in reality dedi-
cated to a god of the ancient Sabines,

These uncertainties, however, will excite no as-
tonishment when it is recollected that Jesus was un-
known to His disciples until He had received bap-
tism from John. It is expressly, "beginning with
the baptism of Jesus," that Peter will have the suc-
cessor of Judas testify concerning Jesus ; and, ac-
cording to the same Acts, Peter thereby understands
the whole time that Jesus had lived with them.

CHRONOLOGY.

The world has long disputed about ancient chro-
nology ; but has there ever been any ? Every con-
siderable people must necessarily possess and pre-
serve authentic, well-attested registers. But how
few people were acquainted with the art of writing?
and, among the small number of men who cultivated
this very rare art, are any to be found who took the
trouble to mark two dates with exactness ?

We have, indeed, in very recent times the astro-
nomical observations of the Chinese and the Chal-
dseans. They only go back about two thousand
years, more or less, beyond our era. But when the
early annals of a nation confine themselves simply to
communicating the information that there was an
eclipse in the reign of a certain prince, we learn, cer-
tainly, that such a prince existed, but not what he
performed.

Dictionary. 127

Moreover, the Chinese reckon the year In which
an emperor dies as still constituting a part of his
reign, until the end of it ; even though he should
die the first day of the year, his successor dates the
year following his death with the name of his pre-
decessor. It is not possible to show more respect
for ancestors ; nor is it possible to compute time
in a manner more injudicious in comparison with
modern nations.

We may add that the Chinese do not commence
their sexagenary cycle, into which they have intro-
duced arrangement, till the reign of the Emperor
lao, two thousand three hundred and fifty-seven
years before our vulgar era. Profound obscurity
hangs over the whole period of time which pre-
cedes that epoch.

Men are generally contented with an approxi-
mation— with the "pretty nearly" in every case.
For example, before the invention of watches,
people could learn the time of day or night only
approximately. In building, the stones were pretty
nearly hewn to a certain shape, the timber pretty
nearly squared, and the limbs of the statue pretty
nearly chipped to a proper finish ; a man was only
pretty nearly acquainted with his nearest neighbors ;
and, notwithstanding the perfection we have our-
selves attained, such is the state of things at present
throughout the greater part of the world.

Let us not then be astonished that there is no-
where to be found a correct ancient chronology.

1 1 S Philosophical

7h:.: ■'irh ■ - ;"-vv :' t}:e Chinese is of considera-
":-r -...'.^T ,_v/ . /ired wiih the chronological
labors of other : ^^ "e have none of the In-
dians, nor of the Persians, and scarcely any of the
ancient Egyptiar.;. A'.l ■-•■r systems formed on the
history of these 7 v t r : as contradictory as our
systems of mets. ' : : 5

The Greek Olynipiads do not commence till
seven hundred and twentA-eight years before our
era of reckoning. Until we arrive at them. \re per-
ceive only a few torches to lighten the darkness,
such as the era of Xabonassar. the war between
Lacedaemon zni A^ejser.e : even those epochs them-
selves are ;u':;e::5 :: iizi't.

Livy took care not to state in what year Romu-
lus began his pretended reign. The Romans, who
well knew the uncertainty of that epoch, would have
ridiculed turn had he tmdertaken to decide it. It
is proved that the durati(M of two hundred and
forty years ascribed to the seven first kings of
Rome is a ver\^ false calculation. The first four
centuries of R<»ne are absolutely destitute of chron-

If four ceniurics of the most memorable empire
the world ever saw comprise only an undigested
mass of events, mixed up with fables, and almost
witliotit a date, what must be the case with small
nations, shut up in an obscure comer of the earth,
tfnt have never made any figure in the world, not-
withstanding all their attempts to compensate, by

Dictionary. 129

prodig>' and imposture, for their deficiency in real
power and cultivation?

Of the Vanity of Systems, Parficularly in
Chronology.

The Abbe Condillac performed a most important
senice to the himian mind when he displayed the
false points of all sj'stems. If we may ever hope
that we shall one day find the road to truth, it can
only be after we have detected all those which lead
to error. It is at least a consolation to be at rest,
to be no longer seeking, when we perceive that so
many philosophers have sought in vain.

Chronology- is a collection of bladders of wind.
All who thought to pass over it as soHd ground
have been immersed. We have, at the present time,
twenty-four systems, not one of which is true.

The Babylonians said, "We reckon four hundred
and sevent}- -three thousand years of astronomical
observations." A Parisian, addressing him. says.
"Your account is correct : your years consisted each
of a solar day ; they amoimt to twelve hundred and
ninety-seven of ours, from the time of Atlas, the
great astronomer, king of Africa, till the arri\-al of
Alexander at Babylon.''

But, whatever our Parisian may say. no people
in the world have ever confounded a day with a
year; and the people of Babylon still less than
any other. This Parisian stranger should have con-
tented himself with merely obsening to the Chaldae-

Vol. 7 — 9

Ijo Philosophical

ans : "You are exaggerators, and our ancestors
were ignorant. Nations are exposed to too many
revolutions to permit their keeping a series of four
thousand seven hundred and thirty-six centuries of
astronomical calculations. And, with respect to
Atlas, king of the Moors, no one knows at what
time he lived. Pythagoras might pretend to have
been a cock, just as reasonably as you may boast of
such a series of observations."

The great point of ridicule in all fantastic chron-
ologies is the arrangement of all the great events
of a man's life in precise order of time, without
ascertaining that the man himself ever existed.
Lenglet repeats after others, in his chronological
compilation of universal history, that precisely in
the time of Abraham, and six years after the death
of Sarah, who was little known to the Greeks,
Jupiter, at the age of sixty-two, began to reign in
Thessaly ; that his reign lasted sixty years ; that
he married his sister Juno ; that he was obliged to
cede the maritime coasts to his brother Neptune ;
and that the Titans made war against him. But was
there ever a Jupiter? It never occurred to him that
with this question he should have begun,

CHURCH.

Summary of the History of the Christian Church.

We shall not extend our views into the deptlis
of theology. God preserve us from such presump-

Dictionary. 131

tion. Humble faith alone is enough for us. We
never assume any other part than that of mere his-
torians.

In the years that immediately followed Jesus
Christ, who was at once God and man, there ex-
isted among the Hebrews nine religious schools or
societies — Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenians, Judah-
ites, Therapeutse, Rechabites, Herodians, the dis-
ciples of John, and the disciples of Jesus, named the
'"brethren," the "Galileans," the "believers," who
did not assume the name of Christians till about
the sixteenth year of our era, at Antioch ; being
directed to its adoption by God himself, in ways un-
known to men. The Pharisees believed in the
metempsychosis. The Sadducees denied the im-
mortality of the soul, and the existence of spirits,
yet believed in the Pentateuch.

Pliny, the naturalist — relying, evidently, on the
authority of Flavins Josephus — calls the Essenians
''gens sterna in qua nemo nascitiir" — "a perpetual
family, in which no one is ever born" — because the
Essenians very rarely married. The description
has been since applied to our monks.

It is difficult to decide whether the Essenians or
the Judahites are spoken of by Josephus in the fol-
lowing passage : "They despise the evils of the
world ; their constancy enables them to triumph
over torments ; in an honorable cause, they prefer
death to life. They have undergone fire and sword,
and submitted to having their very bones crushed,

132 Philosophical

rather than utter a syllable against their legislator,
or eat forbidden food."

It would seem, from the words of Josephus, that
the foregoing portrait applies to the Judahites, and
not to the Essenians. "J^^^s was the author of a
new sect, completely different from the other three ;"
that is, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the
Essenians. "They are," he goes on, "Jews by
nation ; they live in harmony with one another, and
consider pleasure to be a vice." The natural mean-
ing of this language would induce us to think that
he is speaking of the Judahites.

However that may be, these Judahites were known
before the disciples of Christ began to possess con-
sideration and consequence in the world. Some
weak people have supposed them to be heretics, who
adored Judas Iscariot.

The Therapeutse were a society different from the
Essenians and the Judahites. They resembled the
Gymnosophists and Brahmins of India, "They pos-
sess," says Philo, "a principle of divine love which
excites in them an enthusiasm like that of the Bac-
chantes and the Corybantes, and which formes them
to that state of contemplation to which they aspire.
This sect originated in Alexandria, which was en-
tirely filled with Jews, and prevailed greatly
throughout Egypt." The Rechabites still continued
as a sect. They vowed never to drink wine ; and
it is, possibly, from their example that Mahomet
forbade that liquor to his followers.

Dictionary. 133

The Herodians regarded Herod, the first of that
name, as a Messiah, a messenger from God, who
had rebuilt the temple. It is clear that the Jews at
Rome celebrated a festival in honor of him, in the
reign of Nero, as appears from the lines of Persius :
"Herodis venere dies," etc, (Sat. v. 180.)

"King Herod's feast, when each Judasan vile,
Trims up his lamp with tallow or with oil."

The disciples of John the Baptist had spread
themselves a little in Egypt, but principally in Syria,
Arabia, and towards the Persian gulf. They are
recognized, at the present day, under the name of
the Christians of St. John. There wxre some also
in Asia Minor. It is mentioned in the Acts of the
Apostles (chap, xix.) that Paul met with many of
them at Ephesus. "Have you received," he asked
them, "the holy spirit ?" They answered him. "We
have not heard even that there is a holy spirit."
"What baptism, then," says he, "have you re-
ceived?" They answered him, "The baptism of
John."

In the meantime the true Christians, as is well
known, were laying the foundation of the only true
religion. He who contributed most to strengthen
this rising society, was Paul, who had himself perse-
cuted it with the greatest violence. He was born
at Tarsus in Cilicia, and was educated under one of
the most celebrated professors among the Phari-
sees— Gamaliel, a disciple of Hillel. The Jews pre-
tend that he quarrelled with Gamaliel, who refused

134 Philosophical

to let him have his daughter in marriage. Some
traces of this anecdote are to be found in the sequel
to the "Acts of St. Thekla." These acts relate that
he had a large forehead, a bald head, united eye-
brows, an aquiline nose, a short and clumsy figure,
and crooked legs. Lucian, in his dialogue "Pliilu-
patres," seems to give a very similar portrait of
him. It has been doubted whether he was a Roman
citizen, for at that time the title was not given to
any Jew ; they had been expelled from Rome by
Tiberius ; and Tarsus did not become a Roman
colony till nearly a hundred years afterwards, under
Caracalla ; as Cellarius remarks in his "Geography"
(book iii.), and Grotius in his "Commentary on the
Acts,'' to whom alone we need refer.

God, who came down upon earth to be an ex-
ample in it of humanity and poverty, gave to his
church the most feeble infancy, and conducted it in
a state of humiliation similar to that in which he
had himself chosen to be born. All the first be-
lievers were obscure persons. They labored with
their hands. The apostle St. Paul himself ac-
knowledges that he gained his hvelihood by making
tents. St. Peter raised from the dead Dorcas, a
sempstress, who made clothes for the "brethren."
The assembly of believers met at Joppa, at the house
of a tanner called Simon, as appears from the ninth
chapter of the "Acts of the Apostles."

The believers spread themselves secretly in
Greece ; and some of them went from Greece to

Dictionary. 135

Rome, among the Jews, who were permitted by the
Romans to have a synagogue. They did not, at
first, separate themselves from the Jews. They
practised circumcision ; and, as we have elsewhere
remarked, the first fifteen obscure bishops of Jeru-
salem w-ere all circumcised, or at least were all of
the Jewish nation.

When the apostle Paul took with him Timothy,
who was the son of a heathen father, he circumcised
him himself, in the small city of Lystra. But Titus,
his other disciple, could not be induced to submit to
circumcision. The brethren, or the disciples of
Jesus, continued united with the Jews until the time
when St. Paul experienced a persecution at Jeru-
salem, on account of his having introduced strangers
into the temple. He was accused by the Jews of
endeavoring to destroy the law of Moses by that of
Jesus Christ. It was with a view to his clearing
himself from this accusation that the apostle St.
James proposed to the apostle Paul that he should
shave his head, and go and purify himself in the
temple, with four Jews, who had made a vow of
being shaved. "Take them with you," says James
to him (Acts of the Apostles xxi.), "purify your-
self with them, and let the whole world know that
what has been reported concerning you is false, and
that you continue to obey the law of Moses." Thus,
then, Paul, who had been at first the most summary
persecutor of the holy society established by Jesus —
Paul, who afterwards endeavored to govern that

136 Philosophical

rising society — Paul the Christian, Judaizes, "that
the world may know that he is calumniated when
he is charged with no longer following the law of
Moses."

St. Paul was equally charged with impiety and
heresy, and the persecution against him lasted a
long time ; but it is perfectly clear, from the nature
of the charges, that he had travelled to Jerusalem
in order to fulfil the rites of Judaism.

He addressed to Faustus these words : "I have
never offended against the Jewish law, nor against
the temple." (Acts xxv.) The apostles announced
Jesus Christ as a just man wickedly persecuted, a
prophet of God, a son of God, sent to the Jews
for the reformation of manners.

"Circumcision," says the apostle Paul, " is good,
if you observe the law ; but if you violate the law,
your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. If any
uncircumcised person keep the law, he will be as
if circumcised. The true Jew is one that is so in-
wardly."

When this apostle speaks of Jesus Christ in his
epistles, he does not reveal the ineffable mystery of
his consubstantiality with God. "We are delivered
by him," says he, "from the wrath of God. The
gift of God hath been shed upon us by the grace
bestowed on one man, who is Jesus Christ. . . .
Death reigned through the sin of one man ; the just
shall reign in life by one man, who is Jesus Christ."
(Romans v.)

Dictionary. 137

And, in the eighth chapter: "We are heirs of
God, and joint-heirs of Christ;" and in the sixteenth
chapter: "To God, who is the only wise, be honor

and glory through Jesus Christ You are

Jesus Christ's, and Jesus Christ is God's." (i Cor.
chap, iii.)

And, in i Cor. xv. 27 : "Everything is made sub-
ject to him, undoubtedly, excepting God, who made
all things subject to him."

Some difficulty has been found in explaining the
following part of the Epistle of the Philippians :
"Do nothing through vain glory. Let each humbly
think others better than himself. Be of the same
mind with Jesus Christ, zvho, being in the likeness
of God, assumed not to equal himself to God." This
passage appears exceedingly well investigated and
elucidated in a letter, still extant, of the churches of
Vienna and Lyons, written in the year 117, and
which is a valuable monument of antiquity. In this
letter the modesty of some believers is praised.
"They did not wish," says the letter, "to assume the
lofty title of martyrs, in consequence of certain
tribulations ; after the example of Jesus Christ,
who, being in the likeness of God, did not assume
the quality of being equal to God." Origen, also,
in his commentary on John, says : "The greatness
of Jesus shines out more splendidly in consequence
of his self-humiliation than if he had assumed
equality with God." In fact, the opposite interpre-
tation would be a solecism. What sense would

138 Philosophical

there be in this exhortation : "Think others superior
to yourselves ; imitate Jesus, who did not think it
an assmupfion to be equal to God?" It would be
an obvious contradiction ; it would be putting an
example of full pretension for an example of
modesty ; it would be an offence against logic.

Thus did the wisdom of the apostles establish
the rising church. That wisdom did not change its
character in consequence of the dispute which took
place between the apostles Peter, James, and John,
on one side, and Paul on the other. This contest
occurred at Antioch. The apostle Peter — formerly
Cephas, or Simon Bar Jona — ate with the converted
Gentiles, and among them did not observe the cere-
monies of the law and the distinction of meats. He
and Barnabas, and the other disciples, ate indiffer-
ently of pork, of animals which had been strangled,
or which had cloven feet, or which did not chew the
cud ; but many Jewish Christians having arrived,
St. Peter joined with them in abstinence from for-
bidden meats, and in the ceremonies of the Mosaic
law.

This conduct appeared very prudent ; he wished
to avoid giving offence to the Jewish Christians,
his companions ; but St. Paul attacked him on the
subject with considerable severity. 'T withstood
him," says he, "to his face, because he was blam-
able." (Gal. chap, ii.)

This quarrel appears most extraordinary on the
part of St. Paul. Having been at first a persecutor,

Dictionary. 139

he might have been expected to have acted with
moderation ; especially as he had gone to Jerusalem
to sacrifice in the temple, had circumcised his dis-
ciple Timothy, and strictly complied with the Jew-
ish rites, for which very compliance he now re-
proached Cephas. St. Jerome imagines that this
quarrel between Paul and Cephas was a pretended
one. He says, in his first homily (vol. iii.) that they
acted like two advocates, who had worked them-
selves up to an appearance of great zeal and exasper-
ation against each other, to gain credit with their
respective clients. He says that Peter — Cephas —
being appointed to preach to the Jews, and Paul to
the Gentiles, they assumed the appearance of quar-
relling— Paul to gain the Gentiles, and Peter to
gain the Jews. But St. Augustine is by no means
of the same opinion. "I grieve," says he, in his
epistle to Jerome, "that so great a man should be
the patron of a lie." — (patronum mendacii).

This dispute between St. Jerome and St. Au-
gustine ought not to diminish our veneration for
them, and still less for St. Paul and St. Peter. As
to what remains, if Peter was destined for the Jews,
who were, after their conversion, likely to Judaize,
and Paul for strangers, it appears probable that
Peter never went to Rome. The Acts of the
Apostles makes no mention of Peter's journey to
Italy.

However that may be, it was about the sixtieth
year of our era that Christians began to separate

140 Philosophical

from the Jewish communion ; and it was this which
drew upon them so many quarrels and persecutions
from the various synagogues of Rome, Greece,
Egypt, and Asia. They were accused of impiety
and atheism by their Jewish brethren, who excom-
municated them in their synagogues three times
every Sabbath-day. But in the midst of their per-
secutions God always supported them.

By degrees many churches were formed, and the
separation between Jews and Christians was com-
plete before the close of the first century. This
separation was unknown to the Roman government.
Neither the senate nor the emperors of Rome in-
terested themselves in those quarrels of a small
flock of mankind, which God had hitherto guided
in obscurity, and which he exalted by insensible
gradations.

Christianity became established in Greece and at
Alexandria. The Christians had there to contend
with a new set of Jews, who, in consequence of in-
tercourse with the Greeks, had become philosophers.
This was the sect of gnosis, or gnostics. Among
them were some of the new converts to Chris-
tianity. All these sects, at that time, enjoyed com-
plete liberty to dogmatize, discourse, and write,
whenever the Jewish courtiers, settled at Rome and
Alexandria, did not bring any charge against them
before the magistrates. But, under Domitian,
Christianity began to give some umbrage to the
government.

Dictionary. 141

The zeal of some Christians, which was not ac-
cording to knowledge, did not prevent the Church
from making that progress which God destined
from the beginning. The Christians, at first, cele-
brated their mysteries in sequestered houses, and
in caves, and during the night. Hence, according
to Minucius Felix, the title given them of luci-
fiigaces. Philo calls them Gesseens. The names
most frequently applied to them by the heathens,
during the first four centuries, were "Galileans" and
"Nazarenes" ; but that of "Christians" has prevailed
above all others. Neither the hierarchy, nor the
services of the church, were established all at once ;
the apostolic times were different from those which
followed.

The mass now celebrated at matins was the sup-
per performed in the evening ; these usages changed
in proportion as the church strengthened. A more
numerous society required more regulations, and
the prudence of the pastors accommodated itself to
times and places. St. Jerome and Eusebius relate
that when the churches received a regular form, five
different orders might be soon perceived to exist
in them — superintendents, episcopoi, whence orig-
inate the bishops ; elders of the society, presbyteroi,
priests, diaconoi, servants or deacons ; pistol,
believers, the initiated — that is_, the baptized, who
participated in the suppers of the agape, or love-
feasts; the catechumens, who were awaiting bap-
tism ; and the energumens, who awaited their being

142 Philosophical

exorcised of demons. In these five orders, no one
had garments different from the others, no one was
bound to celibacy ; witness Tertullian's book, dedi-
cated to his wife ; and witness also the example of
the apostles. No paintings or sculptures were to be
found in their assemblies during the first two cen-
turies ; no altars ; and, most certainly, no tapers,
incense, and lustral water. The Christians carefully
concealed their books from the Gentiles ; they in-
trusted them only to the initiated. Even the cate-
chumens were not permitted to recite the Lord's
prayer.

Of the Pozvcr of Expelling Devils, Given to the
Church.

That which most distinguished the Christians,
and which has continued nearly to our own times,
was the power of expelling devils with the sign of
the cross. Origen, in his treaties against Celsus,
declares — at No. 133 — that Antinous, who had been
defied by the emperor Adrian, performed miracles
in Eg}'pt by the power of charms and magic ; but
he says that the devils came out of the bodies of the
possessed on the mere utterance of the name of
Jesus.

Tertullian goes farther; and from the recesses
of Africa, where he resided, he says, in his
"Apolog>'" — chap, xxiii. — "If your gods do not
confess themselves to be devils in the presence of a
true Christian, we give you full liberty to shed tha*-

Dictionary. 143

Christian's blood." Can any demonstration be pos-
sibly clearer?

In fact, Jesus Christ sent out his apostles to expel
demons. The Jews, likewise, in his time, had the
power of expelling them ; for, when Jesus had de-
livered some possessed persons, and sent the devils
into the bodies of a very numerous herd of swine,
and had performed many other similar cures, the
Pharisees said : "He expels devils through the
power of Beelzebub." Jesus replied: "By whom do
your sons expel them ?" It is incontestable that the
Jews boasted of this power. They had exorcists
and exorcisms. They invoked the name of God,
of Jacob, and of Abraham. They put consecrated
herbs into the nostrils of the demoniacs. Josephus
relates a part of these ceremonies. This power over
devils, which the Jews have lost, was transferred to
the Christians, who seem likewise to have lost it in
their turn.

The power of expelling demons comprehended
that of destroying the operations of magic; for
magic has been always prevalent in every nation.
All the fathers of the Church bear testimony to
magic. St. Justin, in his "Apology" — book iii. —
acknowledges that the souls of the dead are fre-
quently evoked, and thence draws an argument in
favor of the immortality of the soul. Lactantius, in
the seventh book of his "Divine Institutions," says
that "if any one ventured to deny the existence of
souls after death, the magician would convince him

144 Philosophical

of it by making them appear." Irenseus, Clevnent of
Alexandria, Tertullian, Cyprian the bishop, all
affirm the same. It is true that, at present, all is
changed, and that there are now no more magicians
than there are demoniacs. But God has the sov-
ereign power of admonishing mankind by prodigies
at some particular seasons, and of discontinuing
those prodigies at others.

Of the Martyrs of the Church.

When Christians became somewhat numerous,
and many arrayed themselves against the worship
established in the Roman Empire, the magistrates
began to exercise severity against them, and the peo-
ple more particularly persecuted them. The Jews,
who possessed particular privileges, and who con-
fined themselves to their synagogues, were not per-
secuted. They were permitted the free exercise of
their religion, as is the case at Rome at the present
day. All the different kinds of worship scattered
over the empire were tolerated, although the senate
did not adopt them. But the Christians, declaring
themselves enemies to every other worship than their
own, and more especially so to that of the empire,
were often exposed to these cruel trials.

One of the first and most distinguished martyrs
was Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, who was con-
demned by the Emperor Trajan himself, at that
time in Asia, and sent to Rome by his orders, to be
exposed to wild beasts, at a time when other Chris-

Dictionary. 145

tians were not persecuted at Rome. It is not known
precisely what charges were alleged against him be-
fore that emperor, otherwise so renowned for his
clemency. St. Ignatius must, necessarily, have had
violent enemies. Whatever were the particulars of
the case, the history of his martyrdom relates that
the name of Jesus Christ was found engraved on his
heart in letters of gold ; and from this circumstance
it was that Christians, in some places, assumed the
name of Theophorus, which Ignatius had given him-
self.

A letter of his has been preserved in which he
entreats the bishops and Christians to make no op-
position to his martyrdom, whether at the time they
might be strong enough to effect his deliverance, or
whether any among them might have influence
enough to obtain his pardon. Another remarkable
circumstance is that when he was brought to Rome
the Christians of that capital went to visit him ;
which would prove clearly that the individual was
punished and not the sect.

The persecutions were not continued. Origen, in
his third book against Celsus, says : "The Christians
who have suffered death on account of their re-
ligion may easily be numbered, for there were only
a few of them, and merely at intervals."

God was so mindful of his Church that, notwith-
standing its enemies, he so ordered circumstances
that it held five councils in the first century, sixteen

in the second, and thirty in the third ; that is, in-
Vol. 7 — 10

146 Philosophical

eluding both secret and tolerated ones. Those as-
semblies were sometimes forbidden, when the weak
prudence of the magistrates feared that they might
become tumultuous. But few genuine documents of
the proceedings before the proconsuls and praetors
who condemned the Christians to death have been
delivered down to us. Such would be the only au-
thorities which would enable us to ascertain the
charges brought against them, and the punishments
they suffered.

We have a fragment of Dionysius of Alexandria,
in which he gives the following extract of a register,
or of records, of a proconsul of Egypt, under the
Emperor Valerian : "Dionysius, Faustus Maximus,
Marcellus, and Chseremon, having been admitted to
the audience, the prefect ^Emilianus thus addressed
them : 'You are sufficiently informed through the
conferences which I have had with you, and all that
I have written to you, of the good- will which our
princes have entertained towards you. I wish thus
to repeat it to you once again. They make the
continuance of your safety to depend upon your-
selves, and place your destiny in your own hands.
They require of you only one thing, which reason
demands of every reasonable person — namely, that
you adore the gods who protect their empire, and
abandon that different worship, so contrary to sense
and nature.' "

Dionysius replied, "All have not the same gods ;
and all adore those whom thev think to be the true

Dictionary. 147

ones." The prefect ^milianus replied : "I see clearly
that you ungratefully abuse the goodness which
the emperors have shown you. This being the case,
you shall no longer remain in this city ; and I now
order you to be conveyed to Cephro, in the heart
of Libya. Agreeably to the command I have re-
ceived from your emperor, that shall be the place of
your banishment. As to what remains, think not to
hold your assemblies there, nor to offer up your
prayers in what you call cemeteries. This is posi-
tively forbidden. I will permit it to none."

Nothing bears a stronger impress of truth than
this document. We see from it that there were
times when assemblies were prohibited. Thus the
Calvinists were forbidden to assemble in France.
Sometimes ministers or preachers, who held assem-
blies in violation of the laws, have suffered even by
the altar and the rack; and since 1745 six have
been executed on the gallows. Thus, in England
and Ireland, Roman Catholics are forbidden to hold
assemblies ; and, on certain occasions, the delin-
quents have suffered death.

Notwithstanding these prohibitions declared by
the Roman laws, God inspired many of the emper-
ors with indulgence towards the Christians. Even
Diocletian, whom the ignorant consider as a perse-
cutor— Diocletian, the first year of whose reign is
still regarded as constituting the commencement of
the era of martyrdom, was, for more than eighteen
years, the declared protector of Christianity, and

14B Philosophical

many Christians held offices of high consequence
about his person. He even married a Christian ;
and, in Nicomedia, the place of his residence, he
permitted a splendid church to be erected opposite
his palace.

The Caesar Galerius having unfortunately taken
up a prejudice against the Christians, of whom he
thought he had reason to complain, influenced Dio-
cletian to destroy the cathedral of Nicomedia. One
of the Christians, with more zeal than prudence,
tore the edict of the emperor to pieces ; and hence
arose that famous persecution, in the course ol
which more than two hundred persons were exe-
cuted in the Roman Empire, without reckoning
those whom the rage of the common people, always
fanatical and always cruel, destroyed without even
the form of law.

So great has been the number of actual martyrs
that we should be careful how we shake the truth of
the history of those genuine confessors of our holy
religion by a dangerous mixture of fables and of
false martyrs.

The Benedictine Prior (Dom) Ruinart, for ex-
ample, a man otherwise as well informed as he was
respectable and devout, should have selected his
genuine records, his "acfes sinceres'' with more dis-
cretion. It is not sufficient that a manuscript,
whether taken from the abbey of St. Benoit on the
Loire, or from a convent of Celestines at Paris, cor-
responds with a manuscript of the Feuillans, to

Dictionary. 149

show tliat the record is authentic ; the record should
possess a suitable antiquity; should have been evi-
dently written by contemporaries ; and, moreover,
should bear all the characters of truth.

He might have dispensed with relating the ad-
venture of young Romanus, which occurred in 303.
This young Romanus had obtained the pardon of
Diocletian, at Antioch. However, Ruinart states
that the judge Asclepiades condemned him to be
burnt. The Jews who were present at the spec-
tacle, derided the young saint and reproached the
Christians, that their God, who had delivered Shad-
rach, Meshach, and Abednego out of the furnace,
left them to be burned ; that immediately, although
the weather had been as calm as possible, a tremen-
dous storm arose and extinguished the flames ; that
the judge then ordered young Romanus's tongue to
be cut out; that the principal surgeon of the em-
peror, being present, eagerly acted the part of exe-
cutioner, and cut off the tongue at the root; that
instantly the young man, who, before had an im-
pediment in his speech, spoke with perfect freedom ;
that the emperor was astonished that any one could
speak so well without a tongue ; and that the sur-
geon, to repeat the experiment, directly cut out the
tongue of some bystander, who died on the spot.

Eusebius, from whom the Benedictine Ruinart
drew his narrative, should have so far respected the
real miracles performed in the Old and New Testa-
ment— which no one can ever doubt — as not to have

1 50 Philosophical

associated with them relations so suspicious, and so
calculated to give offence to weak minds. This last
persecution did not extend through the empire.
There was at that time some Christianity in Eng-
land, which soon eclipsed, to reappear afterwards
under the Saxon kings. The southern districts of
Gaul and Spain abounded with Christians. The
Caesar Constantius Chlorus afforded them great pro-
tection in all his provinces. He had a concubine
who was a Christian^ and who was the mother of
Constantine, known under the name of St. Helena ;
for no marriage was ever proved to have taken place
between them ; he even divorced her in the yeai
292, when he married the daughter of Maximilian
Hercules ; but she had preserved great ascendency
over his mind, and had inspired him with a great
attachment to our holy religion.

Of the Establishment of the Church Under Con-
stantine.

Thus did divine Providence prepare the triumph
of its church by ways apparently conformable to
human causes and events. Constantius Chlorus died
in 306, at York, in England, at a time when the
children he had by the daughter of a Caesar were
of tender age, and incapable of making pretensions
to the empire. Constantine boldly got himself
elected at York, by five or six thousand soldiers,
the greater part of whom were French and English.
There was no probability that this election, effected

Dictionary. 1 5 1

without the consent of Rome, of the senate and the
armies, could stand ; but God gave him the victory
over Maxentius, who had been elected at Rome,
and delivered him at last from all his colleagues.
It is not to be dissembled that he at first rendered
himself unworthy of the favors of heaven, by mur-
dering all his relations, and at length even his own
wife and son.

We may be permitted to doubt what Zosimus
relates on this subject. He states that Constantine,
under the tortures of remorse from the perpetration
of so many crimes, inquired of the pontiffs of the
empire, whether it were possible for him to obtain
any expiation, and that they informed him that they
knew of none. It is perfectly true that none was
found for Nero, and that he did not venture to as-
sist at the sacred mysteries in Greece. However,
the Taurobolia were still observed, and it is diffi-
cult to believe that an emperor, supremely powerful,
could not obtain a priest who would willingly in-
dulge him in expiatory sacrifices. Perhaps, indeed,
it is less easy to believe that Constantine, occupied
as he was with war, politic enterprises, and ambi-
tion, and surrounded by flatterers, had time for re-
morse at all. Zosimus adds that an Egyptian priest,
who had access to his gate, promised him the expia-
tion of all his crimes in the Christian religion. It
has been suspected that this priest was Ozius, bishop
of Cordova.

However this might be, God reserved Constan-

152 Philosophical

tine for the purpose of enlightening his mind, and
to make him the protector of the Church. This
prince built the city of Constantinople, which be-
came the centre of the empire and of the Christian
religion. The Church then assumed a form of
splendor. And we may hope that, being purified by
his baptism, and penitent at his death, he may have
found mercy, although he died an Arian. It would
be not a little severe, were all the partisans of both
the bishops of the name of Eusebius to incur damna-
tion.

In the year 314, before Constantine resided in his
new city, those who had persecuted the Christians
were punished by them for their cruelties. The
Christians threw Maxentius's wife into the Orontes ;
they cut the throats of all his relations, and they
massacred, in Egypt and Palestine, those magis-
trates who had most strenuously declared against
Christianity. The widow and daughter of Diocle-
tian, having concealed themselves at Thessalonica,
were recognized, and their bodies thrown into the
sea. It would certainly have been desirable that
the Christians should have followed less eagerly the
cry of vengeance ; but it was the will of God, who
punishes according to justice, that, as soon as the
Christians were able to act without restraint, their
hands should be dyed in the blood of their perse-
cutors.

Constantine summoned to meet at Nice, opposite
Constantinople, the first ecumenical council, of

Dictionary. i ^^

which Ozius was president. Here was decided the
grand question that agitated the Church, relating to
the divinity of Jesus Christ. It is well known how
the Church, having contended for three hundred
years against the rights of the Roman Empire, at
length contended against itself, and was always mili-
tant and triumphant.

In the course of time almost the whole of the
Greek church and the whole African church be-
came slaves under the Arabs, and afterwards under
the Turks, who erected the Mahometan religion on
the ruins of the Christian. The Roman church sub-
sisted, but always reeking with blood, through more
than six centuries of discord between the western
empire and the priesthood. Even these quarrels
rendered her very powerful. The bishops and ab-
bots in Germany all became princes ; and the popes
gradually acquired absolute dominion in Rome, and
throughout a considerable territory. Thus has God
proved his church, by humiliations, by afflictions,
by crim.es, and by splendor.

This Latin church, in the sixteenth century, lost
half of Germany, Denmark, Sweden, England,
Scotland, Ireland, and the greater part of Switzer-
land and Holland. She gained more territory in
America by the conquests of the Spaniards than
she lost in Europe ; but, with more territory, she has
fewer subjects.

Divine Providence seemed to call upon Japan,
Siam, India, and China to place themselves under

154 Philosophical

obedience to the pope, in order to recompense him
for Asia Minor, Syria, Greece, Egypt, Africa, Rus-
sia, and the other lost states which we mentioned.
St. Francis Xavier, who carried the holy gospel to
the East Indies and Japan, when the Portuguese
went thither upon mercantile adventure, performed
a great number of miracles, all attested by the R.
R. P. P. Jesuits. Some state that he resuscitated
nine dead persons. But R. P. Ribadeneira, in his
"Flower of the Saints," limits himself to asserting
that he resuscitated only four. That is sufficient.
Providence was desirous that, in less than a hundred
years, there should have been thousands of Catho-
lics in the islands of Japan. But the devil sowed his
tares among the good grain. The Jesuits, accord-
ing to what is generally believed, entered into a
conspiracy, followed by a civil war, in which all the
Christians were exterminated in 1638. The nation
then closed its ports against all foreigners except the
Dutch, who were considered merchants and not
Christians, and were first compelled to trample on
the cross in order to gain leave to sell their wares
in the prison in which they are shut up, when they
land at Nagasaki.

The Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion has
become proscribed in China in our own time, but
with circumstances of less cruelty. The R. R. P. P.
Jesuits had not, indeed, resuscitated the dead at the
court of Pekin ; they were contented with teaching
astronomy, casting cannon, and being mandarins.

Dictionary. 155

Their unfortunate disputes with the Dominicans and
others gave such offence to the great Emperor
Yoncliin that that prince, who was justice and
goodness personified, was bHnd enough to refuse
permission any longer to teach our holy religion,
in respect to which our missionaries so little agreed.
He expelled them, but with a kindness truly pa-
ternal, supplying them with means of subsistence,
and conveyance to the confines of his empire.

All Asia, all Africa, the half of Europe, all that
belongs to the English and Dutch in America, all
the unconquered American tribes, all the southern
climes, which constitute a fifth portion of the globe,
remain the prey of the demon, in order to fulfil
those sacred words, "many are called, but few are
chosen." — Matt, xx., 16.

Of the Signification of the Word "Church." Pic-
ture of the Primitive Church. Its Degeneracy.
Examination into those Societies zvhich have At-
tempted to Re-establish the Primitive Church,
and Particularly into that of the Primitives called
Quakers.

The term "church" among the Greeks signified
the assembly of the people. When the Hebrew
books were translated into Greek, "synagogue" was
rendered by "church", and the same term was em-
ployed to express the "Jewish society," the "political
congregation," the "Jewish assembly," the "Jewish
people." Thus it is said in the Book of Numbers,

156 PhilosopHicai

"Why hast thou conducted the church into the wil-
derness ;" and in Deuteronomy, "The eunuch, the
Moabite, and the Ammonite, shall not enter the
church ; the Idumseans and the Egyptians shall not
enter the church, even to the third generation.''

Jesus Christ says, in St. Matthew, "If thy
brother have sinned against thee [have offended
thee] rebuke him, between yourselves. Take with
you one or two witnesses, that, from the mouth of
two or three witnesses, everything may be made
clear ; and, if he hear not them, complain to the as-
sembly of the people, to the church ; and, if he hear
not the church, let him be to thee as a heathen or
a publican. Verily, I say unto you, so shall it come
to pass, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven" — an illusion to the
keys of doors which close and unclose the latch.

The case is here, that of two men, one of whom
has offended the other, and persists. He could not
be made to appear in the assembly, in the Christian
church, as there was none ; the person against whom
his companion complained could not be judged by
a bishop and priests who were not in existence ; be-
sides which, it is to be observed, that neither Jewish
priests nor Christian priests ever became judges in
quarrels between private persons. It v/as a matter
of police. Bishops did not become judges till about
the time of Valentinian III.

The commentators have therefore concluded that

Dictionary. 157

the sacred writer of this gospel makes our Lord
speak in this passage by anticipation — that it is an
allegory, a prediction of what would take place
when the Christian church should be formed and
established.

Selden makes an important remark on this pas-
sage, that, among the Jews, -publicans or collectors
of the royal moneys were not excommunicated.
The populace might detest them, but as they were
indispensable officers, appointed by the prince, the
idea had never occurred to any one of separating
them from the assembly. The Jews were at that
time under the administration of the proconsul of
Syria, whose jurisdiction extended to the confines
of Galilee, and to the island of Cyprus, where he
had deputies. It would have been highly impru-
dent in any to show publicly their abomination of
the legal officers of the proconsul. Injustice, even,
would have been added to imprudence, for the
Roman knights — equestrians — who farmed the pub-
lic domain and collected Caesar's money, were au-
thorized by the laws.

St. Augustine, in his eighty-first sermon, may
perhaps suggest reflections for comprehending this
passage. He is speaking of those who retain their
hatred, who are slow to pardon.

"Cepisti habere fratreni tuum tanquatn public-
anum. Ligas ilium in terra; sed ut juste alliges
vide; nam injusta znncula dirsumpit jiistitia. Cum
autem correxeris et concordaveris cum fratre tuo

158 Philosophical

solvisti eum in terra." You began to regard your
brother as a publican ; that is, to bind him on the
earth. But be cautious that you bind him justly, for
justice breaks unjust bonds. But when you have
corrected, and afterwards agreed with your brother,
you have loosed him on earth.

From St. Augustine's interpretation, it seems
that the person offended shut up the offender in
prison; and that it is to be understood that, if the
offender is put in bonds on earth, he is also in
heavenly bonds ; but that if the offended person is
inexorable, he becomes bound himself. In St. Au-
gustine's explanation there is nothing whatever re-
lating to the Church. The whole matter relates to
pardoning or not pardoning an injury. St. Augus-
tine is not speaking here of the sacerdotal power of
remitting sins in the name of God. That is a right
recognized in other places ; a right derived from the
sacrament of confession. St. Augustine, profound
as he is in types and allegories, does not consider
this famous passage as alluding to the absolution
given or refused by the ministers of the Roman
Catholic Church, in the sacrament of penance.

Of the "Church," in Christian Societies.

In the greater part of Christian states we per-
ceive no more than four churches — the Greek, the
Roman, the Lutheran, and the reformed or Calvin-
istic. It is thus in Germany. The Primitives or
Quakers, the Anabaptists, the Socinians, the Mem-

Dictionary. 159

nonists, the Pietists, the Moravians, the Jews, and
others, do not form a church. The Jewish rehgion
has preserved the designation of synagogue. The
Christian sects which are tolerated have only private
assemblies, "conventicles." It is the same in Lon-
don. We do not find the Catholic Church in
Sweden, nor in Denmark, nor in the north of Ger-
many, nor in Holland, nor in three quarters of
Switzerland, nor in the three kingdoms of Great
Britain.

Of the Primith'c Church, and of Those Who Have
Endeavored to Re-establish It.

The Jews, as well as all the different people of
Syria, were divided into many different congrega-
tions, as we have already seen. All were aimed at
a mystical perfection. A ray of purer light shone
upon the disciples of St. John, who still subsist near
Mosul. At last, the Son of God, announced by St.
John, appeared on earth, whose disciples were al-
ways on a perfect equality. Jesus had expressly
enjoined them, "There shall not be any of you either

first or last I came to serve, not to be served.

.... He who strives to be master over others shall
be their servant."

One proof of equality is that the Christians at
first took no other designation than that of "breth-
ren." They assembled in expectation of the spirit.
They prophesied when they were inspired. St.
Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, says to

i6o Philosophical

them, "If, in your assembly, any one of you have the
gift of a psalm, a doctrine, a revelation, a language,
an interpretation, let all be done for edification. If
any speak languages, as two or three may do in suc-
cession, let there be an interpreter.

"Let two or three prophets speak, and the others
judge ; and if anything be revealed to another while
one is speaking, let the latter be silent ; for you may
all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all
exhort ; the spirit of prophecy is subject to the

prophets ; for the Lord is a God of peace

Thus, then, my brethren, be all of you desirous of
prophesying, and hinder not the speaking of lan-
guages."

I have translated literally, both out of reverence
for the text, and to avoid any disputes about words.
St. Paul, in the same epistle, admits that women
may prophesy; although, in the fourteenth chapter,
he forbids their speaking in the assemblies. "Every
woman," says he, "praying or prophesying without
having a veil over her head, dishonoreth her head,
for it is the same as if she were shaven."

It is clear, from all these passages and from many
others, that the first Christians were all equal, not
merely as brethren in Jesus Christ, but as having
equal gifts. The spirit was communicated to them
equally. They equally spoke different languages;
they had equally the gift of prophesying, without
distinction of rank, age, or sex.

The apostles who instructed the neophytes pos-

Dictionary. i6i

sessed over them, unquestionably, that natural pre-
eminence which the preceptor has over the pupil ;
but of jurisdiction, of temporal authority, of what
the world calls "honors," of distinction in dress, of
emblems of superiority, assuredly neither they, nor
those who succeeded them, had any. They pos-
sessed another, and a very different superiority, that
of persuasion.

The brethren put their money into one common
stock. Seven persons were chosen by themselves
out of their own body, to take charge of the tables,
and to provide for the common wants. They chose,
in Jerusalem itself, those whom we call Stephen,
Philip, Procerus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and
Nicholas. It is remarkable that, among seven per-
sons chosen by a Jewish community, six were
Greeks.

After the time of the apostles we find no ex-
ample of any Christian who possessed any other
power over other Christians than that of instruct-
ing, exhorting, expelling demons from the bodies of
"energumens," and performing miracles. All is
spiritual ; nothing savors of worldly pomp. It was
only in the third century that the spirit of pride,
vanity, and interest, began to be manifested among
the believers on every side.

The agapse had now become splendid festivals,

and attracted reproach for the luxury and profusion

which attended them. Tertullian acknowledges it.

"Yes," says he, "we make splendid and plentiful
Vol. 7 — II

1 62 Philosophical

entertainments, but was not the same done at tht
mysteries of Athens and of Egypt? Whatever
learning we display, it is useful and pious, as the
poor benefit by it." Quantiscumque siimptibus con-
stet, lucrum est pietatis, si qnidem inopes refrigerio
isto juvamus.

About this very period, certain societies of Chris-
tians, who pronounced themselves more perfect than
the rest, the Montanists, for example, who boasted
of so many prophecies and so austere a morality ;
who regarded second nuptials as absolute adulteries,
and flight from persecution as apostasy ; who had
exhibited in public holy convulsions and ecstasies,
and pretended to speak with God face to face, were
convicted, it was said, of mixing the blood of an in-
fant, a year old, with the bread of the eucharist.
They brought upon the true Christians this dreadful
reproach, which exposed them to persecutions.

Their method of proceeding, according to St.
Augustine, was this : they pricked the whole body
of the infant with pins and, kneading up flour with
the blood, made bread of it. If any one died by
eating it, they honored him as a martyr.

Manners were so corrupted that the holy fathers
were incessantly complaining of it. Hear what St.
Cyprian says, in his book concerning tombs : "Every
priest," says he, "seeks for wealth and honor with
insatiable avidity. Bishops are without religion ;
women without modesty ; knavery is general ; pro-
fane swearing and perjury abound; animosities di-

Dictionary. 163

vide Christians asunder ; bishops abandon their
pupils to attend the exchange, and obtain opulence
by merchandise ; in short, we please ourselves alone,
and excite the disgust of all the rest of the world."

Before the occurrence of these scandals, the
priest Novatian had been the cause of a very dread-
ful one to the people of Rome. He was the first anti-
pope. The bishopric of Rome, although secret, and
liable to persecution, was an object of ambition and
avarice, on account of the liberal contributions of
the Christians, and the authority attached to that
high situation.

We will not here describe again what is contained
in so many authentic documents, and what we every
day hear from the mouths of persons correctly in-
formed— the prodigious number of schisms and
wars ; the six hundred years of fierce hostility be-
tween the empire and the priesthood ; the wealth
of nations, flowing through a thousand channels,
sometimes into Rome, sometimes into Avignon,
when the popes, for two and seventy years together,
fixed their residence in that place ; the blood rush-
ing in streams throughout Europe, either for the in-
terest of a tiara utterly unknown to Jesus Christ, or
on account of unintelligible questions which He
never mentioned. Our religion is not less sacred or
less divine for having been so defiled by guilt and
steeped in carnage.

When the frenzy of domination, that dreadful
passion of the human heart, had reached its greatest

1 64 Philosophical

excess; when the monk Hildebrand, elected bishop
of Rome against the laws, wrested that capital from
the emperors, and forbade all the bishops of the west
from bearing the name of pope, in order to appro-
priate it to himself alone ; when the bishops of Ger-
many, following his example, made themselves sov-
ereigns, which all those of France and England also
attempted ; from those dreadful times down even to
our own, certain Christian societies have arisen
which, under a hundred different names, have en-
deavored to re-establish the primitive equality in
Christendom.

But what had been practicable in a small society,
concealed from the world, was no longer so in ex-
tensive kingdoms. The church militant and tri-
umphant could no longer be the church humble
and unknown. The bishops and the large, rich, and
powerful monastic communities, uniting under the
standards of the new pontificate of Rome, fought at
that time pro aris et focis, for their hearths and
altars. Crusades, armies, sieges, battles, rapine, tor-
tures, assassinations by the hand of the executioner,
assassinations by the hands of priests of both the
contending parties, poisonings, devastations by fire
and sword — all were employed to support and to
pull down the new ecclesiastical administration ; and
the cradle of the primitive church was so hidden as
to be scarcely discoverable under the blood and
bones of the slain.

Dictionary. 165

Of the Primitives called Quakers.

The religious and civil wars of Great Britain
having desolated England, Scotland, and Ireland,
in the unfortunate reign of Charles I., William
Penn, son of a vice-admiral, resolved to go and es-
tablish what he called the primitive Church on the
shores of North America, in a climate which ap-
peared to him to be mild and congenial to his own
manners. His sect went under the denomination of
"Quakers," a ludicrous designation, but which they
merited, by the trembling of the body which they
affected when preaching, and by a nasal pronuncia-
tion, such as peculiarly distinguished one species of
monks in the Roman Church, the Capuchins. But
men may both snuffle and shake, and yet be meek,
frugal, modest, just, and charitable. No one denies
that this society of Primitives displayed an example
of all those virtues.

Penn saw that the English bishops and the Pres-
byterians had been the cause of a dreadful war on
account of a surplice, lawn sleeves, and a liturgy.
He would have neither liturgy, lawn, nor surplice.
The apostles had none of them. Jesus Christ had
baptized none. The associates of Penn declined
baptism.

The first believers were equal ; these new comers
aimed at being so, as far as possible. The first dis-
ciples received the spirit, and spoke in the assembly ;
they had no altars, no temples, no ornaments, no
tapers, incense, or ceremonies. Penn and his fol-

1 66 Philosophical

lowers flattered themselves that they received the
spirit, and they renounced all pomp and ceremony.
Charity was in high esteem with the disciples of the
Saviour ; those of Penn formed a common purse for
assisting the poor. Thus these imitators of the
Essenians and first Christians, although in error
with respect to doctrines and ceremonies, were an
astonishing model of order an^ morals to every
other society of Christians.

At length this singular man went, with five hun-
dred of his followers, to form an establishment in
what was at that time the most savage district of
America. Queen Christina of Sweden had been de-
sirous of founding a colony there, which, however,
had not prospered. The Primitives of Penn were
more successful.

It was on the banks of the Delaware, near the
fortieth degree of latitude. This country belonged
to the king of England only because there were no
others who claimed it, and because the people whom
we call savages, and who might have cultivated it,
had always remained far distant in the recesses of
the forests. If England had possessed this country
merely by right of conquest, Penn and his Prim-
itives would have held such an asylum in horror.
They looked upon the pretended right of conquest
only as a violation of the right of nature, and as
absolute robbery.

King Charles II. made Penn sovereign of all
this wild country by a charter granted March 4,

Dictionary. 167

1681. In the following year Penn promulgated his
code of laws. The first was complete civil liberty,
in consequence of which every colonist possessing
five acres of land became a member of the legisla-
ture. The next was an absolute prohibition against
advocates and attorneys ever taking fees. The third
was the admission of all religions, and even the
permission to every inhabitant to worship God in
his own house, without ever taking part in public
worship.

This is the law last mentioned, in the terms of
its enactment : "Liberty of conscience being a
right which all men have received from nature with
their very being, and which all peaceable persons
ought to maintain, it is positively established that
no person shall be compelled to join in any public
exercise of religion.

"But every one is expressly allowed full power
to engage freely in the public or private exercise of
his religion, without incurring thereby any trouble
or impediment, under any pretext ; provided that he
acknowledge his belief in one only eternal God Al-
mighty, the creator, preserver, and governor of the
universe, and that he fulfil all the duties of civil
society which he is bound to perform to his fellow
citizens."

This law is even more indulgent, more humane,
than that which was given to the people of Carolina
by Locke, the Plato of England, so superior to the
Plato of Greece. Locke permitted no public re-

1 68 Philosophical

ligions except such as should be approved by seven
fathers of families. This is a different sort of wis-
dom from Penn's.

But that which reflects immortal honor on both
legislators, and which should operate as an eternal
example to mankind, is, that this liberty of con-
science has not occasioned the least disturbance. It
might, on the contrary, be said that God had
showered down the most distinguished blessings on
the colony of Pennsylvania. It consisted, in 1682,
of five hundred persons, and in less than a century
its population had increased to nearly three hundred
thousand. One half of the colonists are of tlie
primitive religion ; twenty different religions com-
prise the other half. There are twelve fine chapels
in Philadelphia, and in other places every house is
a chapel. This city has deserved its name : "Broth-
erly Love." Seven other cities, and innumerable
small towns, flourish under this law of concord.
Three hundred vessels leave the port in the course
of every year.

This state, which seems to deserve perpetual
duration, was very nearly destroyed in the fatal war
of 1755, when the French, with their savage allies
on one side, and the English, with theirs, on the
other, began with disputing about some frozen dis-
tricts of Nova Scotia. The Primitives, faithful to
their pacific system of Christianity, declined to take
up arms. The savages killed some of their colonists
on the frontier; the Primitives made no reprisals.

Dictionary. 169

They even refused, for a long time, to pay the
troops. They addressed the English general in these
words : "Men are like pieces of clay, which are
broken to pieces one against another. Why should
we aid in breaking one another to pieces ?"

At last, in the general assembly of the legislature
of Pennsylvania, the other religions prevailed ;
troops were raised; the Primitives contributed
money, but declined being armed. They obtained
their object, which was peace with their neighbors.
These pretended savages said to them, "Send us a
descendant of the great Penn, who never deceived
us ; with him we will treat." A grandson of that
great man was deputed, and peace was concluded.
Many of the Primitives had negro slaves to culti-
vate their estates. But they blushed at having, in
this instance, imitated other Christians. They gave
liberty to their slaves in 1769.

At present all the other colonists imitate them in
liberty of conscience, and although there are among
them Presbyterians and persons of the high church
party, no one is molested about his creed. It is this
which has rendered the English power in America
equal to that of Spain, with all its mines of gold and
silver. If any method could be devised to enervate
the English colonies it would be to establish in them
the Inquisition.

The example of the Primitives, called "Quakers,"
has given rise in Pennsylvania to a new society, in
a district which it calls Euphrates. This is the sect

lyo Philosophical

of Dunkers or Dumpers, a sect much more secluded
from the world than Perm's ; a sort of religious
hospitallers, all clothed uniformly. Married persons
are not permitted to reside in the city of Euphrates :
they reside in the country, which they cultivate.
The public treasury supplies all their wants in times
of scarcity. This society administers baptism only
to adults. It rejects the doctrine of original sin as
impious, and that of the eternity of punishment as
barbarous. The purity of their lives permits them
not to imagine that God will torment His creatures
cruelly or eternally. Gone astray in a corner of the
new world, far from the great flock of the Cath-
olic Church, they are, up to the present hour, not-
withstanding this unfortunate error, the most just
and most inimitable of men.

Quarrel hetzveen the Greek and Latin Churches in
Asia and Europe.

It has been a matter of lamentation to all good
men for nearly fourteen centuries that the Greek
and Latin Churches have always been rivals, and
that the robe of Jesus Christ, which was without a
seam, has been continually rent asunder. This oppo-
sition is perfectly natural. Rome and Constantinople
hate each other. When masters cherish a mutual
aversion, their dependents entertain no mutual re-
gard. The two communions have disputed on the
superiority of language, the antiquity of sees, on
learning, eloquence, and power.

Dictionary. 17 1

It is certain that, for a long time, the Greeks pos-
sessed all the advantage. They boasted that they
had been the masters of the Latins, and that they had
taught them everything. The Gospels were written
in Greek. There was not a doctrine, a rite, a mys-
tery, a usage, which was not Greek ; from the word
"baptism" to the word "eucharist" all was Greek.
No fathers of the Church were known except
among the Greeks till St. Jerome, and even he was
not a Roman, but a Dalmatian. St. Augustine, who
flourished soon after St. Jerome, was an African.
The seven great ecumenical councils were held in
Greek cities : the bishops of Rome were never pres-
ent at them, because they were acquainted only with
their own Latin language, which was already ex-
ceedingly corrupted.

The hostility between Rome and Constantinople
broke out in 452, at the Council of Chalcedon, which
had been assembled to decide whether Jesus Christ
had possessed two natures and one person, or two
persons with one nature. It was there decided that
the Church of Constantinople was in every respect
equal to that of Rome, as to honors, and the pa-
triarch of the one equal in every respect to the pa-
triarch of the other. The pope, St. Leo, admitted
the two natures, but neither he nor his successors
admitted the equality. It may be observed that, in
this dispute about rank and pre-eminence, both par-
ties were in direct opposition to the injunction of
Jesus Christ, recorded in the Gospel : "There shall

172 Philosophical

not be among you first or last." Saints are saints,
but pride will insinuate itself everywhere. The same
disposition which made a mason's son, who had been
raised to a bishopric, foam with rage because he
was not addressed by the title of "my lord," has set
the whole Christian world in flames.

The Romans were always less addicted to dispu-
tation, less subtle, than the Greeks, but they were
much more politic. The bishops of the east, while
they argued, yet remained subjects : the bishop of
Rome, without arguments, contrived eventually to
establish his power on the ruins of the western em-
pire. And what Virgil said of the Scipios and
Caesars might be said of the popes :

"Romanos reruni dominos gentemque togatam" — vEneid,
i. 286.

This mutual hatred led, at length, to actual di-
vision, in the time of Photius, papa or overseer of
the Byzantine Church, and Nicholas I., papa or
overseer of the Roman Church. As, unfortunately,
an ecclesiastical quarrel scarcely ever occurs without
something ludicrous being attached to it, it hap-
pened, in this instance, that the contest began be-
tween two patriarchs, both of whom were eunuchs :
Ignatius and Photius, who disputed the chair of Con-
stantinople, were both emasculated. This mutila-
tion depriving them of the power of becoming nat-
ural fathers, they could become fathers only of the
Church. It is observed that persons of this unfortu-
nate description are meddling, malignant, and plot-

Dictionary. 173

ting. Ignatius and Photius kept the whole Greek
court in a state of turbulence.

The Latin, Nicholas I., having taken the part
of Ignatius, Photius declared him a heretic, on ac-
count of his admitting the doctrine that the breath
of God, or the Holy Spirit, proceeded from the
Father and the Son, contrary to the unanimous de-
cision of the whole Churchy which had decided that
it proceeded from the Father only.

Besides this heretical doctrine respecting the pro-
cession, Nicholas ate, and permitted to be eaten,
eggs and cheese in Lent. In fine, as the very climax
of unbelief, the Roman papa had his beard shaved,
which, to the Greek papas, was nothing less than
downright apostasy ; as Moses, the patriarchs, and
Jesus Christ were always, by the Greek and Latin
painters, pictured with beards.

When, in 879, the patriarch Photius was restored
to his seat by the eighth ecumenical council — con-
sisting of four hundred bishops, three hundred of
whom had condemned him in the preceding council
— he was acknowledged by Pope John as his
brother. Two legates, despatched by him to this
council, joined the Greek Church, and declared that
whoever asserted the Holy Spirit proceeded from
the Father and the Son was a Judas. But the prac-
tice of shaving the chin and eating eggs in Lent
being persisted in, the two churches always re-
mained divided.

The schism was completed in 1053 and 1054,

174 Philosophical

when Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constanti-
nople, publicly condemned the bishop of Rome, Leo
IX., and all the Latins, adding to all the reproaches
against them by Photius that, contrary to the prac-
tice of the apostles, they dared to make use of un-
leavened bread in the eucharist ; that they wickedly
ate blood puddings, and twisted the necks, instead
of cutting off the heads, of pigeons intended for the
table. All the Latin churches in the Greek empire
were shut up, and all intercourse with those who
ate blood puddings was forbidden.

Pope Leo IX. entered into serious negotiation
on this matter with the Emperor Constantine Mon-
omachus, and obtained some mitigations. It was
precisely at this period that those celebrated Nor-
man gentlemen, the sons of Tancred de Hauteville,
despising at once the pope and the Greek emperor,
plundered everything they could in Apulia and Cal-
abria, and ate blood puddings with the utmost hardi-
hood. The Greek emperor favored the pope as
much as he was able ; but nothing could reconcile
the Greeks with the Latins. The Greeks regarded
their adversaries as barbarians^ who did not know
a single word of Greek. The irruption of the Cru-
saders, under pretence of delivering the Holy Land,
but in reality to gain possession of Constantinople,
completed the hatred entertained against the Ro-
mans.

But the power of the Latin Church increased
every day, and the Greeks were at length gradually

Dictionary. 175

vanquished by the Turks. The popes, long since, be-
came powerful and wealthy sovereigns; the whole
Greek Church became slaves from the time of Ma-
homet II., except Russia, which was then a bar-
barous country, and in which the Church was of no
account.

Whoever is but slightly informed of the state of
affair in the Levant knows that the sultan confers
the patriarchate of the Greeks by a cross and a ring,
without any apprehension of being excommunica-
ted, as some of the German emperors were by the
popes, for this same ceremony.

It is certainly true that the church of Stamboul
has preserved, in appearance, the liberty of choosing
its archbishop ; but never, in fact, chooses any other
than the person pointed out by the Ottoman court.
This preferment costs, at present, about eighty thou-
sand francs, which the person chosen contrives to
get refunded from the Greeks. If any canon of
influence and wealth comes forward, and offers the
grand vizier a large sum, the titular possessor is
deprived, and the place given to the last bidder;
precisely as the see of Rome was disposed of, in
the tenth century, by Marozia and Theodora. If
the titular patriarch resists, he receives fifty blows
on the soles of his feet, and is banished. Sometimes
he is beheaded, as was the case with Lucas Cyrille,
in 1638.

The Grand Turk disposes of all the other bishop-
rics, in the same manner, for money ; and the price

176 Philosophical

charged for every bishopric under Mahomet II. is
ahvays stated in the patent ; but the additional sum
paid is not mentioned in it. It is not exactly known
what a Greek priest gives for his bishopric.

These patents are rather diverting documents:

"I grant to N , a Christian priest, this order,

for the perfection of his felicity. I command him
to reside in the city herein named, as bishop of the
infidel Christians, according to their ancient usage,
and their vain and extravagant ceremonies, wilHng
and ordaining that all Christians of that district
shall acknowledge him, and that no monk or priest
shall marry without his permission." That is to
say, without paying for the same.

The slavery of this Church is equal to its igno-
rance. But the Greeks have only what they deserve.
They were wholly absorbed in disputes about the
light on Mount Tabor, and the umbilical cord, at
the very time of the taking of Constantinople.

While recording these melancholy truths we en-
tertain the hope that the Empress Catherine II. will
give the Greeks their liberty. Would she could re-
store to them that courage and that intellect which
they possessed in the days of Miltiades and The-
mistocles ; and that Mount Athos supplied good
soldiers and fewer monks.

Of the Present Greek Church.

The Greek Church has scarcely deserved the tol-
eration which the Mussulmans granted it. The fol-

Dictionary. 177

lowing observations are from Mr. Porter, the Eng-
lish ambassador in Turkey :

"I am inclined to draw a veil over those scan-
dalous disputes between the Greeks and Romans,
on the subject of Bethlehem and the holy land, as
they denominate it. The unjust and odious proceed-
ings which these have occasioned between them are
a disgrace to the Christian name. In the midst of
these debates the ambassador appointed to protect
the Romish communion becomes, with all high dig-
nity, an object of sincere compassion.

"In every country where the Roman Catholic
prevails, immense sums are levied in order to sup-
port against the Greek's equivocal pretensions to
the precarious possession of a corner of the world
reputed holy ; and to preserve in the hands of the
monks of the Latin communion the remains of an
old stable at Bethlehem, where a chapel has been
erected, and where on the doubtful authority of oral
tradition, it is pretended that Christ was born ; as
also a tomb, which may be, and most probably may
not be, what is called his sepulchre ; for the precise
situation of these two places is as little ascertained
as that which contains the ashes of Csesar."

What renders the Greeks yet more contemptible
in the eyes of the Turks is the miracle which they
perform every year at Easter. The poor bishop of
Jerusalem is inclosed in a small cave, which is
passed off for the tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ,
with packets of small wax tapers; he strikes fire.

Vol. 7 — 12

lyS Philosophical

lights one of these little tapers, and comes out of
his cave exclaiming: "The fire is come down from
heaven, and the holy taper is lighted." All the
Greeks immediately buy up these tapers, and the
money is divided between the Turkish commander
and the bishop. The deplorable state of this Church,
under the dominion of the Turk, may be judged
from this single trait.

The Greek Church in Russia has of late assumed
a much more respectable consistency, since the Em-
press Catherine II. has delivered it from its secular
cares ; she has taken from it four hundred thou-
sand slaves, which it possessed. It is now paid out
of the imperial treasury, entirely dependent on the
government, and restricted by wise laws ; it can
effect nothing but good, and is every day becoming
more learned and useful. It possesses a preacher
of the name of Plato, who has composed sermons
which the Plato of antiquity would not have dis-
dained.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

England is the country of sects; "multcB sunt
mansiones in domo patris met:" an Englishman,
like a free man, goes to heaven which way he
pleases. However, although every one can serve
God in his own way, the national religion — that
in which fortunes are made — is the Episcopal, called
the Church of England, or emphatically, "The

Dictionary. 179

Church." No one can have employment of any
consequence, either in England or Ireland, without
being members of the establishment. This reason-
ing, which is highly demonstrative, has converted so
many nonconformists that at present there is not
a twentieth part of the nation out of the bosom of
the dominant church.

The English clergy have retained many Catholic
ceremonies, and above all that of receiving tithes,
with a very scrupulous attention. They also pos-
sess the pious ambition of ruling the people, for
what village rector w^ould not be a pope if he could ?

With regard to manners, the English clergy are
more decorous than those of France, chiefly be-
cause the ecclesiastics are brought up in the univer-
sities of Oxford and Cambridge, far from the cor-
ruption of the metropolis. They are not called to
the dignities of the Church until very late, and at
an age when men, having no other passion than av-
arice, their ambition is less aspiring. Employments
are, in England, the recompense of long service in
the church, as well as in the army. You do not
there see young men become bishops or colonels on
leaving college ; and, moreover, almost all the priests
are married. The pedantry and awkwardness of
manners, acquired in the universities, and the little
commerce they have with women, generally oblige
a bishop to be contented with the one which belongs
to him. The clergy go sometimes to the tavern,
because custom permits it, and if they get "Bacchi

i8o Philosophical

plenum" it is in the college style, gravely and with
due decorum.

That indefinable character which is neither ec-
clesiastical nor secular, which we call abbe, is un-
known in England. The ecclesiastics there are gen-
erally respected, and for the greater part pedants.
When the latter learn that in France young men
distinguished by their debaucheries, and raised to
the prelacy by the intrigues of women, publicly make
love ; vie with each other in the composition of
love songs ; give luxurious suppers every day, from
which they arise to implore the light of the Holy
Spirit, and boldly call themselves the apostles' suc-
cessors— they thank God they are Protestants. But
what then? They are vile heretics, and fit only for
burning, as master Francis Rabelais says, "with all
the devils." Hence I drop the subject.

CHURCH PROPERTY.

The Gospel forbids those who would attain per-
fection to amass treasures, and to preserve their
temporal goods : "Lay not up for yourselves treas-
ures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves break through and steal." "If
thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and
give to the poor." "And every one that hath for-
saken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or
mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's
sake, shall receive an hundred-fold, and shall inherit
everlasting life."

Dictionary. i8i

The apostles and their first successors would not
receive estates ; they only accepted the value, and,
after having provided what was necessary for their
subsistence, they distributed the rest among the
poor. Sapphira and Ananias did not give their
goods to St. Peter, but they sold them and brought
him the price : "Vende quce habes et da pauperibus."

The Church already possessed considerable prop-
erty at the close of the third century, since Diocletian
and Maximian had pronounced the confiscation of it,
in 302.

As soon as Constantine was upon the throne he
permitted the churches to be endowed like the tem-
ples of the ancient religion, and from that time the
Church acquired rich estates. St. Jerome complains
of it in one of his letters to Eustochium : "When you
see them," says he, "accost the rich widows whom
they meet with a soft and sanctified air, you would
think that their hands were only extended to give
them their blessing; but it is, on the contrary, to
receive the price of their hypocrisy."

The holy priests received without claiming. Val-
entinian I. thought it right to forbid the ecclesiastics
from receiving anything from widows and women,
by will or otherwise. This law, which is found in
the Theodosian code, was revoked by Marcian and
Justinian.

Justinian, to favor the ecclesiastics, forbade the
judges, by his new code xviii. chap, ii., to annul the
wills made in favor of the Church, even when exe-

1 82 Philosophical

cuted without the formalities prescribed by the
laws.

Anastasius had enacted, in 471, that church prop-
erty should be held by a prescription, or title, of
forty years' duration. Justinian inserted this law
in his code ; but this prince, who was continually
changing his jurisprudence, subsequently extended
this proscription to a century. Immediately several
ecclesiastics, unworthy of their profession, forged
false titles, and drew out of the dust old testaments,
void by the ancient laws, but valid according to
the new. Citizens were deprived of their patrimo-
nies by fraud ; and possessions, which until then
Vv^ere considered inviolable, were usurped by the
Church. In short, the abuse was so crying that Jus-
tinian himself was obliged to re-establish the dispo-
sitions of the law of Anastasius, by his novel cxxxi.
chap. vi.

The possessions of the Church during the first
five centuries of our era were regulated by deacons,
who distributed them to the clergy and to the poor.
This community ceased at the end of the fifth cen-
tury, and Church property was divided into four
parts — one being given to the bishops, another to
the clergy, a third to the place of worship, and the
fourth to the poor. Soon after this division the
bishops alone took charge of the whole four por-
tions, and this is the reason why the inferior clergy
are generally very poor.

Dictionary. 1 83

Monks possessing Slaves.

What is still more melancholy, the Benedictines,
Bernardines, and even the Chartreux are permitted
to have mortmains and slaves. Under their domi-
nation in several provinces of France and Germany
are still recognized : personal slavery, slavery of
property, and slavery of person and property. Sla-
very of the person consists in the incapacity of a
man's disposing of his property in favor of his
children, if they have not always lived with their
father in the same house, and at the same table, in
which case all belongs to the monks. The fortune
of an inhabitant of Mount Jura, put into the hands
of a notary, becomes, even in Paris, the prey of
those who have originally embraced evangelical pov-
erty at Mount Jura. The son asks alms at the door of
the house which his father has built ; and the monks,
far from giving them, even arrogate to themselves
the right of not paying his father's creditors, and of
regarding as void all the mortgages on the house of
which they take possession. In vain the widow
throws herself at their feet to obtain a part of her
dowry. This dowry, these debts, this paternal prop-
erty, all belong, by divine right, to the monks. The
creditors, the widow, and the children are all left
to die in beggary.

Real slavery is that which is effected by resi-
dence. Whoever occupies a house within the do-
main of these monks, and lives in it a year and a
day, becomes their serf for life. It has sometimes

1 84 Philosophical

happened that a French merchant, and father of a
family, led by his business into this barbarous coun-
try, has taken a house for a year. Dying afterwards
in his own country, in another province of France,
his widow and children have been quite astonished
to see officers, armed with writs, come and take
away their furniture, sell it in the name of St.
Claude, and drive away a whole family from the
house of their father.

Mixed slavery is that which, being composed of
the two, is, of all that rapacity has ever invented,
the most execrable, and beyond the conception even
of freebooters. There are, then. Christian people
groaning in a triple slavery under monks who have
taken the vow of humility and poverty. You will
ask how governments suffer these fatal contradic-
tions? It is because the monks are rich and the
vassals are poor. It is because the monks, to pre-
serve their Hunnish rights, make presents to their
commissaries and to the mistresses of those who
might interpose their authority to put down their
oppression. The strong always crush the weak;
but why must monks be the stronger?

CICERO.

It is at a time when, in France, the fine arts are
in a state of decline ; in an age of paradox, and
amidst the degradation and persecution of litera-
ture and philosophy, that an attempt is made to tar-
nish the name of Cicero. And who is the man who

Dictionary. 185

thus endeavors to throw disgrace upon his mem-
ory? It is one who lends his services in defence of
persons accused Hke himself ; it is an advocate, who
has studied eloquence under that great master; it
is a citizen who appears to be, like Cicero, animated
by devotion to the public good.

In a book entitled "Navigable Canals," a book
abounding in grand and patriotic rather than prac-
tical views, we feel no small astonishment at finding
the following philippic against Cicero, who was
never concerned in digging canals :

"The most glorious trait in the history of Cicero
is the destruction of Catiline's conspiracy, which,
regarded in its true light, produced little sensation
at Rome, except in consequence of his affecting to
give it importance. The danger existed much more
in his discourses than in the affair itself. It was
an enterprise of debauchees which it was easy to
disconcert. Neither the principal nor the accom-
plices had taken the slightest measure to insure the
success of their guilty attempt. There was nothing
astonishing in this singular matter but the bluster-
ing which attended all the proceedings of the con-
sul, and the facility with which he was permitted
to sacrifice to his self-love so many scions of illus-
trious families.

"Besides, the life of Cicero abounds in traits of
meanness. His eloquence was as venal as his soul
was pusillanimous. If his tongue was not guided
by interest it was guided by fear or hope. The de-

1 86 Philosophical

sire of obtaining partisans led him to the tribune,
to defend, without a blush, men more dishonorable,
and incalculably more dangerous, than Catiline. His
clients were nearly all miscreants, and, by a singular
exercise of divine justice, he at last met death from
the hands of one of those wretches whom his skill
had extricated from the fangs of human justice."

We answer that, "regarded in its true light," the
conspiracy of Catiline excited at Rome somewhat
more than a "slight sensation." It plunged her into
the greatest disturbance and danger. It was ter-
minated only by a battle so bloody that there is no
example of equal carnage, and scarcely any of equal
valor. All the soldiers of Catiline, after having
killed half of the army of Petrius, were killed, to the
last man. Catiline perished, covered with wounds,
upon a heap of the slain ; and all were found with
their countenances sternly glaring upon the enemy.
This was not an enterprise so wonderfully easy as
to be disconcerted. Caesar encouraged it ; Caesar
learned from it to conspire on a future day more suc-
cessfully against his country.

"Cicero defended, without a blush, men more dis-
honorable, and incalculably more dangerous than
Catiline !" Was this when he defended in the trib-
une Sicily against Verres, and the Roman republic
against Antony? Was it when he exhorted the
clemency of Caesar in favor of Ligarius and King
Deiotarus? or when he obtained the right of cit-
izenship for the poet Archias? or when, in his ex-

Dictionary. 187

quisite oration for the Manilian law, he obtained
every Roman suffrage on behalf of the great Pom-
pey?

He pleaded for Milo, the murderer of Clodius ;
but Clodius had deserved the tragical end he met
with by his outrages. Clodius had been involved
in the conspiracy of Catiline ; Clodius was his mor-
tal enemy. He had irritated Rome against him, and
had punished him for having saved Rome. Milo
was his friend.

What ! is it in our time that any one ventures
to assert that God punished Cicero for having de-
fended a military tribune called Popilius Lena, and
that divine vengeance made this same Popilius Lena
the instrument of his assassination ? No one knows
whether Popilius Lena was guilty of the crime of
which he was acquitted, after Cicero's defence of
him upon his trial ; but all know that the monster
was guilty of the most horrible ingratitude, the most
infamous avarice, and the most detestable cruelty
to obtain the money of three wretches like himself.
It was reserved for our times to hold up the assas-
sination of Cicero as an act of divine justice. The
triumvirs would not have dared to do it. Every age,
before the present, has detested and deplored the
manner of his death.

Cicero is reproached with too frequently boast-
ing that he had saved Rome, and with being too
fond of glory. But his enemies endeavored to stain
his glory. A tyrannical faction condemned him to

1 88 Philosophical

exile, and razed his house, because he had preserved
every house in Rome from the flames which Cati-
line had prepared for them. Men are permitted and
even bound to boast of their services, when they
meet with forgetfulness or ingratitude, and more
particularly when they are converted into crimes.

Scipio is still admired for having answered his
accusers in these words : "This is the anniversary
of the day on which I vanquished Hannibal ; let us
go and return thanks to the gods." The whole as-
sembly followed him to the Capitol, and our hearts
follow him thither also, as we read the passage in
history ; though, after all, it would have been bet-
ter to have delivered in his accounts than to extri-
cate himself from the attack by a bon mot.

Cicero, in the same manner, excited the admira-
tion of the Roman people when, on the day in which
his consulship expired, being obliged to take the
customary oaths, and preparing to address the
people as was usual, he was hindered by the tribune
Matellus, who was desirous of insulting him. Cic-
ero had begun with these words : "I swear," — the
tribune interrupted him, and declared that he would
not suffer him to make a speech. A great murmur-
ing was heard. Cicero paused a moment, and ele-
vating his full and melodious voice, he exclaimed,
as a short substitute for his intended speech, "I
swear that I have saved the country." The assem-
bly cried out with delight and enthusiasm, "We
swear that he has spoken the truth." That moment

Dictionary. 189

was the most brilliant of his life. This is the true
way of loving glory. I do not know where I have
read these unknown verses:

RomainSyfaime la g loir e, et ne veux point 7n en taire
Des travaux des humains c'est le digne salaire,
Ce fi'est qu'en vous gu'il lafaut acheter ;
Qui nose la vouloir, nose la mMter.

Romans, I own that glory I regard

Of human toil the only just reward;

Placed in your hands the immortal guerdon lies,

And he will ne'er deserve who slights the prize.

Can we despise Cicero if we consider his conduct
in his government of Cilicia, which was then one
of the most important provinces of the Roman Em-
pire, in consequence of its contiguity to Syria and
the Parthian Empire. Laodicea, one of the most
beautiful cities of the East, was the capital of it.
This province was then as flourishing as it is at the
present day degraded under the government of the
Turks, who never had a Cicero.

He begins by protecting Ariobarzanes, king of
Cappadocia, and he refuses the presents which that
king desires to make him. The Parthians come and
attack Antioch in a state of perfect peace. Cicero
hastily marches towards it^ comes up with the Par-
thians by forced marches at Mount Taurus, routs
them, pursues them in their retreat, and Arsaces,
their general, is slain, with a part of his army.

Thence he rushes on Pendenissum, the capital of
a country in alliance with the Parthians, and takes
it, and the province is reduced to submission. He
instantly directs his forces against the tribes of

1 90 Philosophical

people called Tiburanians, and defeats them, and
his troops confer on him the title of Imperator,
which he preserved all his life. He would have ob-
tained the honors of a triumph at Rome if he had
not been opposed by Cato, who induced the senate
merely to decree public rejoicings and thanks to the
gods, when, in fact, they were due to Cicero.

If we picture to ourselves the equity and disinter-
estedness of Cicero in his government ; his activity,
his affability — two virtues so rarely compatible ; the
benefits which he accumulated upon the people over
whom he was an absolute sovereign ; it will be ex-
tremely difficult to withhold from such a man our
esteem.

If we reflect that this is the same man who first
introduced philosophy into Rome ; that his "Tus-
culan Questions," and his book "On the Nature of
the Gods," are the two noblest works that ever were
written by mere human wisdom, and that his treat-
ise, "De OfHciis," is the most useful one that we
possess in morals ; we shall find it still more diffi-
cult to despise Cicero. We pity those who do not
read him ; we pity still more those who refuse to
do him justice.

To the French detractor we may well oppose the

lines of the Spanish Martial, in his epigram against

Antony (book v., epig. 69, v. 7) :

Quid prosunt sacrcE pretiosa silentia linguae?
Incipient omnes pro Cicerone loqui.

Why still his tongue with vengeance weak.
For Cicero all the world will speak!

Dictionary. 191

See, likewise, what is said by Juvenal (sat, iv.,
V. 244) :

Roma patrem patriae Ciceronem libera dixit.
Freed Rome, him father of his country called.

CIRCUMCISION.

When Herodotus narrates what he was told by
the barbarians among whom he travelled, he nar-
rates fooleries, after the manner of the greater part
of travellers. Thus, it is not to be supposed that he
expects to be believed in his recital of the adventure
of Gyges and Candaules ; of Arion, carried on the
back of a dolphin ; of the oracle which was con-
sulted on what Croesus was at the time doing, that
he was then going to dress a tortoise in a stew-pan ;
of Darius' horse, which, being the first out of a cer-
tain number to neigh, in fact proclaimed his master
a king ; and of a hundred other fables, fit to amuse
children, and to be compiled by rhetoricians. But
when he speaks of what he has seen, of the customs
of people he has examined, of their antiquities which
he has consulted, he then addresses himself to men.

"It appears," says he, in his book "Euterpe,"
"that the inhabitants of Colchis sprang from Egypt.
I judge so from my own observations rather than
from hearsay ; for I found that, at Colchis, the an-
cient Egyptians were more frequently recalled to
my mind than the ancient customs of Colchis were
when I was in Egypt.

192 Philosophical

"These inhabitants of the shores of the Euxine
Sea stated themselves to be a colony founded by Se-
sostris. As for myself, I should think this probable,
not merely because they are dark and woolly-haired,
but because the inhabitants of Colchis, Eg}'pt, and
Ethiopia are the only people in the world who, from
time immemorial, have practised circumcision; for
the Phcenicians, and the people of Palestine, con-
fess that they adopted the practice from the Egyp-
tians. The Syrians, who at present inhabit the banks
of Thermodon, acknowledge that it is, compara-
tively, but recently that they have conformed to it.
It is principally from this usage that they are con-
sidered of Egyptian origin.

"With respect to Ethiopia and Egypt, as this cer-
emony is of great antiquity in both nations, I can-
not by any means ascertain which has derived it
from the other. It is, however, probable that the
Ethiopians received it from the Egyptians ; while,
on the contrary, the Phoenicians have abolished the
practice of circumcising new-born children since the
enlargement of their commerce with the Greeks."

From this passage of Herodotus it is evident
that many people had adopted circumcision from
Egy^pt, but no nation ever pretended to have re-
ceived it from the Jews. To whom, then, can we
attribute the origin of this custom ; to a nation from
whom five or six others acknowledge they took it,
or to another nation, much less powerful, less com-
mercial, less warlike, hid away in a corner of Ara-

Dictionary. 193

bia Petraea, and which never communicated any one
of its usages to any other people?

The Jews admit that they were, many ages since,
received in Egypt out of charity. Is it not probable
that the lesser people imitated a usage of the su-
perior one, and that the Jews adopted some customs
from their masters ?

Clement of Alexandria relates that Pythagoras,
when travelling among the Egyptians, was obliged
to be circumcised in order to be admitted to their
mysteries. It was, therefore, absolutely necessary
to be circumcised to be a priest in Eg}-pt. Those
priests existed when Joseph arrived in Egy^pt. The
government was of great antiquity, and the ancient
ceremonies of the country were observed with the
most scrupulous exactness.

The Jews acknowledge that they remained in
Eg>'pt two hundred and five years. They say that,
during that period, they did not become circumcised.
It is clear, then, that for two hundred and five years
the Egyptians did not receive circumcision from the
Jews. Would they have adopted it from them after
the Jews had stolen the vessels which they had lent
them, and, according to their own account, fled with
their plunder into the wilderness? Will a master
adopt the principal symbol of the religion of a rob-
bing and runaway slave? It is not in human nature.

It is stated in the Book of Joshua that the Jews
were circumcised in the wilderness. 'T have deliv-
ered you from what constituted your reproach
Vol. 7—13

1 94 Philosophical

among the Egyptians." But what could this re-
proach be, to a people hving between Phoenicians,
Arabians, and Egyptians, but something which ren-
dered them contemptible to these three nations?
How effectually is that reproach removed by ab-
stracting a small portion of the prepuce? Must not
this be considered the natural meaning of the pass-
age?

The Book of Genesis relates that Abraham
had been circumcised before. But Abraham trav-
elled in Egypt, which had been long a flourishing
kingdom, governed by a powerful king. There is
nothing to prevent the supposition that circumcision
was, in this very ancient kingdom, an established
usage. Moreover, the circumcision of Abraham led
to no continuation ; his posterity was not circum-
cised till the time of Joshua.

But, before the time of Joshua, the Jews, by their
own acknowledgment, adopted many of the customs
of the Egyptians. They imitated them in many sac-
rifices, in many ceremonies ; as, for example, in the
fasts observed on the eves of the feasts of Isis ; in
ablutions ; in the custom of shaving the heads of the
priests ; in the incense, the branched candle-stick,
the sacrifice of the red-haired cow, the purification
with hyssop, the abstinence from swine's flesh, the
dread of using the kitchen utensils of foreigners;
everything testifies that the little people of Hebrews,
notwithstanding its aversion to the great Egyptian
nation, had retained a vast number of the usages

Dictionary. 195

of its former masters. The goat Azazel, which was
despatched into the wilderness laden with the sins
of the people, was a visible imitation of an Egyptian
practice. The rabbis are agreed, even, that the word
Azazel is not Hebrew. Nothing, therefore, could
exist to have prevented the Hebrews from imitating
the Egyptians in circumcision, as the Arabs, their
neighbors, did.

It is by no means extraordinary that God, who
sanctified baptism, a practice so ancient among the
Asiatics, should also have sanctified circumcision,
not less ancient among the Africans. We have al-
ready remarked that he has a sovereign right to
attach his favors to any symbol that he chooses.

As to what remains since the time when, under
Joshua, the Jewish people became circumcised, it
has retained that usage down to the present day.
The Arabs, also, have faithfully adhered to it ; but
the Egyptians, who, in the earlier ages, circumcised
both their males and females, in the course of time
abandoned the practice entirely as to the latter, and
at last applied it solely to priests, astrologers, and
prophets. This we learn from Clement of Alexan-
dria, and Origen. In fact, it is not clear that the
Ptolemies ever received circumcision.

The Latin authors who treat the Jews with such
profound contempt as to apply to them in derision
the expressions, "curtus Apella," "credat Judceus
Apella," "curti Judai," never apply such epithets to
the Egyptians. The whole population of Egypt is

196 Philosophical

at present circumcised, but for another reason than
that which operated formerly ; namely, because Ma-
hometanism adopted the ancient circumcision of
Arabia. It is this Arabian circumcision which has
extended to the Ethiopians, among whom males and
females are both still circumcised.

We must acknowledge that this ceremony ap-
pears at first a very strange one ; but we should re-
member that, from the earliest times, the oriental
priests consecrated themselves to their deities by
peculiar marks. An ivy leaf was indented with a
graver on the priests of Bacchus. Lucian tells us
that those devoted to the goddess Isis impressed
characters upon their wrist and neck. The priests
of Cybele made themselves eunuchs.

It is highly probable that the Egyptians, who
revered the instrument of human production, and
bore its image in pomp in their processions, con-
ceived the idea of offering to Isis and Osiris
through whom everything on earth was produced,
a small portion of that organ with which these dei-
ties had connected the perpetuation of the human
species. Ancient oriental manners are so prodig-
iously different from our own that scarcely an3^thing
will appear extraordinary to a man of even but little
reading. A Parisian is excessively surprised when
he is told that the Hottentots deprive their male
children of one of the evidences of virility. The
Hottentots are perhaps surprised that the Parisians
preserve both.

Dictionary. 197

CLERK— CLERGY,

There may be something perhaps still remain-
ing for remark under this head, even after Du
Cange's "Dictionary" and the "Encyclopaedia." We
may observe, for instance, that so wonderful was
the respect paid to learning, about the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, that a custom was introduced and
followed in France, in Germany, and in England, of
remitting the punishment of the halter to every con-
demned criminal who was able to read. So neces-
sary to the state was every man who possessed such
an extent of knowledge. William the Bastard, the
conqueror of England, carried thither this custom.
It was called beneiit of clergy — "beneficiiin cleri-
corum ant clcrgicorum."

We have remarked, in more places than one, that
old usages, lost in other countries, are found again
in England, as in the island of Samothrace were dis-
covered the ancient mysteries of Orpheus. To this
day the benefit of clergy subsists among the Eng-
lish, in all its vigor, for manslaughter, and for any
theft not exceeding a certain amount of value, and
being the first offence. The prisoner who is able to
read demands his "benefit of clergy," which cannot
be refused him. The judge refers to the chaplain of
the prison, who presents a book to the prisoner, upon
which the judge puts the question to the chaplain,
''Legit?" "Does he read?" The chaplain replies:
"Legit n)t cleriais." "He reads like a clergyman."

198 Philosophical

After this the punishment of the prisoner is re-
stricted to the application of a hot branding iron to
the palm of his hand.

Of the Celibacy of the Clergy.

It is asked whether, in the first ages of the
Church, marriage was permitted to the clergy, and
when it was forbidden? It is unquestionable that
the clergy of the Jewish religion, far from being
bound to celibacy, were, on the contrary, urged to
marriage, not merely by the example of their
patriarchs, but by the disgrace attached to not leav-
ing posterity.

In the times, however, that preceded the first
calamities which befell the Jews, certain sects of
rigorists arose — Essenians, Judaites, Therapeutse,
Herodians ; in some of which — the Essenians and
Therapeutje, for examples — the most devout of the
sect abstained from marriage. This continence was
an imitation of the chastity of the vestals, instituted
by Numa Pompilius; of the daughter of Pythag-
oras, who founded a convent ; of the priests of
Diana ; of the Pythia of Delphos ; and, in more re-
mote antiquity, of the priestesses of Apollo, and
even of the priestesses of Bacchus. The priests of
Cybele not only bound themselves by vows of
chastity, but, to preclude the violation of their vows,
became eunuchs. Plutarch, in the eighth question
of his "Table-talk," informs us that, in Egypt, there
are colleges of priests which renounce marriage.

Dictionary. 199

The first Christians, although professing to lead
a life as pure as that of the Essenians and Thera-
peutse, did not consider celibacy as a virtue. We
have seen that nearly all the apostles and disciples
were married. St. Paul writes to Titus : "Choose
for a priest him who is the husband of one wife,
having believing children, and not under accusation
of dissoluteness." He says the same to Timothy:
"Let the superintendent be the husband of one
wife." He seems to think so highly of marriage
that, in the same epistle to Timothy, he says : "The
wife, notwithstanding her prevarication, shall be
saved in child-bearing."

The proceedings of the Council of Nice, on the
subject of married priests, deserve great attention.
Some bishops, according to the relations of Sozo-
men and Socrates, proposed a law commanding
bishops and priests thenceforward to abstain from
their wives ; but St. Paphnucius the Martyr, bishop
of Thebes, in Egypt, strenaously opposed it ; ob-
serving, "that marriage was chastity" ; and the
council adopted his opinion. Suidas, Gelasius,
Cesicenus, Cassiodorus, and Nicephorus Callistus,
record precisely the same thing. The council merely
forbade the clergy from living with agapetse, or fe-
male associates besides their own wives, except their
mothers, sisters, aunts, and others whose age would
preclude suspicion.

After that time, the celibacy of the clergy was
recommended, without being commanded. St.

200 Philosophical

Jerome, a devout recluse, was, of all the fathers,
highest in his eulogiums of the celibacy of priests ;
yet he resolutely supports the cause of Carterius, a
Spanish bishop, who had been married twice.
"Were I," says he, "to enumerate all the bishops
who have entered into second nuptials, I should
name as many as were present at the Council of
Rimini" — "Tantus Humerus congregabitur ut Rimi-
nensis synodus superetur."

The examples of clerg\'men married, and living
with their wives, are innumerable. Sydonius,
bishop of Clermont, in Auvergne, in the fifth cen-
tury, married Papianilla, daughter of the Emperor
Avitus, and the house of Polignac claims descent
from this marriage. Simplicius, bishop of Bourges,
had two children by his wife Palladia. St. Gregory
of Nazianzen was the son of another Gregory,
bishop of Nazianzen, and of Nonna, by whom that
bishop had three children — Cesarius, Gorgonia, and
the saint.

In the Roman decretals, under the canon Osius,
we find a very long list of bishops who were the
sons of priests. Pope Osius himself was the son of
a sub-deacon Stephen; and Pope Boniface I., son
of the priest Jocondo. Pope Felix III. was the son
of Felix, a priest, and was himself one of the grand-
fathers of Gregory the Great. The priest Projectus
was the father of John II. ; and Gordian, the father
of Agapet. Pope Sylvester was the son of Pope
Hormisdas. Theodore I. was born of a marriage of

Dictionary. 2oi

Theodore, patriarch of Jerusalem; a circumstance
which should produce the reconcihation of the two
Churches.

At length, after several councils had been held
without effect on the subject of the celibacy, which
ought always to accompany the priesthood, Pope
Gregory excommunicated all married priests ; either
to add respectability to the Church, by the greater
rigor of its discipline, or to attach more closely to
the court of Rome the bishops and priests of other
countries, who would thus have no other family
than the Church. This law was not established with-
out great opposition.

It is a very remarkable circumstance that the
Council of Basel, having deposed, at least nominally.
Pope Eugenius IV., and elected Amadeus of Savoy,
many bishops having objected against that prince
that he had been married, .^neas Sylvius, who was
afterwards pope, under the name of Pius II., sup-
ported the ejection of Amadeus in these words :
''Non solum qui uxorem habuit, sed iixorem liabens,
potest assumere" — "Not only may he be made a pope
who has been married, but also he who is so."

This Pius II. was consistent. Peruse his letters
to his mistress,, in the collection of his works. He
was convinced, that to defraud nature of her rights
was absolute insanity, and that it was the duty of
man not to destroy, but to control her.

However this may be, since the Council of Trent
there has no longer been any dispute about the cell-

202 Philosophical

bacy of the Roman Catholic clergy ; there have been
only desires. All Protestant communions are, on
this point, in opposition to Rome.

In the Greek Church, which at present extends
from the frontiers of China to Cape Matapan, the
priests may marry once. Customs everywhere vary ;
discipline changes conformably to time and place.
We here only record facts; we enter into no con-
troversy.

Of Clerks of the Closet, Since Denominated Secre-
taries of State and Ministers.

Clerks of the closet, clerks of the king, more re-
cently denominated secretaries of state, in France
and England, were originally the "king's notaries."
They were afterwards called "secretaries of orders"
— secretaires dcs commandemens. This we are in-
formed of by the learned and laborious Pasquier.
His authority is unquestionable, as he had under his
inspection the registers of the chamber of accounts,
which, in our own times, have been destroyed by fire.

At the unfortunate peace of Cateau-Cambresis,
a clerk of Philip 11. , having taken the title of secre-
tary of state, de I'Aubespine, who was secretary of,
orders to the king of France, and his notary, took
that title likewise, that the honors of both might be
equal, whatever might be the case with their emolu-
ments.

In England, before the reign of Henry VIII.,
there was only one secretary of the king, who stood

Dictionary. 203

while he presented memorials and petitions to the
council. Henry VIII. appointed two, and conferred
on them the same titles and prerogatives as in Spain.
The great nobles did not, at that period, accept
these situations ; but, in time, they have become of
so much consequence that peers of the realm and
commanders of armies are now invested with them.
Thus everything changes. There is at present no
relic in France of the government of Hugh Capet,
nor in England of the administration of William
the Bastard.

CLIMATE.

It is certain that the sun and atmosphere mark
their empire on all the productions of nature, from
man to mushrooms. In the grand age of Louis
XIV., the ingenious Fontenelle remarked :

"One might imagine that the torrid and two
frigid zones are not well suited to the sciences.
Down to the present day they have not travelled
beyond Egypt and Mauritania, on the one side, nor
on the other beyond Sweden. Perhaps it is not
owing to mere chance that they are retained within
Mount Atlas and the Baltic Sea. We know not
whether these may not be the limits appointed to
them by nature, or whether we may ever hope to see
great authors among Laplanders or negroes."

Chardin, one of those travellers who reason and
investigate, goes still further than Fontenelle, when
speaking of Persia. "The temperature of warm

204 Philosophical

climates," says he, "enervates the mind as well as
the body, and dissipates that fire which the imagina-
tion requires for invention. In such climates men
are incapable of the long studies and intense appli-
cation which are necessary to the production of
first-rate works in the liberal and mechanic arts,"
etc.

Chardin did not consider that Sadi and Lokman
were Persians. He did not recollect that Archi-
medes belonged to Sicily, where the heat is greater
than in three-fourths of Persia. He forgot that
Pythagoras formerly taught geometry to the Brah-
mins. The Abbe Dubos supported and developed,
as well as he was able, the opinion of Chardin.

One hundred and fifty years before them, Bodin
made it the foundation of his system in his "Re-
public," and in his "Method of History" ; he asserts
that the influence of climate is the principle both of
the government and the religion of nations. Dio-
dorus of Sicily was of the same opinion long before
Bodin.

The author of the "Spirit of Laws," without
quoting any authority, carried this idea farther than
Chardin and Bodin. A certain part of the nation
believed him to have first suggested it, and imputed
it to him as a crime. This was quite in character
with that part of the nation alluded to. There are
everywhere men who possess more zeal than un-
derstanding.

We might ask those who maintain that climate

Dictionary. 205

does everything, why the Emperor Julian, in his
"Misopogon," says that what pleased him in the
Parisians was the gravity of their characters and
the severity of their manners ; and why these Paris-
ians, without the slightest change of climate, are
now like playful children, at whom the government
punishes and smiles at the same moment, and who
themselves, the moment after^ also smile and sing
lampoons upon their masters.

Why are the Egyptians, who are described as
having been still more grave than the Parisians, at
present the most lazy, frivolous, and cowardly of
people, after having, as we are told, conquered the
whole world for their pleasure, under a king called
Sesostris? Why are there no longer Anacreons,
Aristotles, or Zeuxises at Athens? Whence comes
it that Rome, instead of its Ciceros, Catos, and
Livys, has merely citizens who dare not speak their
minds, and a brutalized populace, whose supreme
happiness consists in having oil cheap, and in gazing
at processions?

Cicero, in his letters, is occasionally very jocular
on the English. He desires his brother Quintus,
Caesar's lieutenant, to inform him whether he has
found any great philosophers among them, in his
expedition to Britain. He little suspected that that
country would one day produce mathematicians
whom he could not understand. Yet the climate
has not at all changed, and the sky of London is as
cloudy now as it was then.

!2o6 Philosophical

Everything changes, both in bodies and minds,
by time. Perhaps the Americans will in some
future period cross the sea to instruct Europeans
in the arts. Climate has some influence, govern-
ment a hundred times more ; religion and govern-
ment combined more still.

Influence of Climate.

Climate influences religion in respect to cere-
monies and usages. A legislator could have experi-
enced no difficulty in inducing the Indians to bathe
in the Ganges at certain appearances of the moon;
it is a high gratification to them. Had any one
proposed a like bath to the people who inhabit the
banks of the Dwina, near Archangel, he would have
been stoned. Forbid pork to an Arab, who after
eating this species of animal food (the most misera-
ble and disgusting in his own country) would be
affected by leprosy, he will obey you with joy; pro-
hibit it to a Westphalian, and he will be tempted to
knock you down. Abstinence from wine is a good
precept of religion in Arabia, where orange, citron,
and lemon waters are necessary to health. Ma-
homet would not have forbidden wine in Switzer-
land, especially before going to battle.

There are usages merely fanciful. Why did the
priests of Egypt devise circumcision? It was not
for the sake of health. Cambyses, who treated as
they deserved both them and their bull Apis, the

Dictionary. 207

courtiers of Cambyses, and his soldiers, enjoyed per-
fectly good health without such mutilation. Climate
has no peculiar influence over this particular portion
of the person of a priest. The offering in question
was made to Isis, probably on the same principle as
the firstlings of the fruits of the earth were every-
where offered. It was typical of an offering of the
first fruits of life.

Religions have always turned on two pivots —
forms of ceremonies, and faith. Forms and cere-
monies depend much on climate ; faith not at all.
A doctrine will be received with equal facility under
the equator or near the pole. It will be afterwards
equally rejected at Batavia and the Orcades, while
it will be maintained, unguibus et rostro — with tooth
and nail — at Salamanca. This depends not on sun
and atmosphere, but solely upon opinion, that fickle
empress of the world.

Certain libations of wine will be naturally en-
joined in a country abounding in vineyards ; and it
would never occur to the mind of any legislator to
institute sacred mysteries, which could not be cele-
brated without wine, in such a country as Norway.

It will be expressly commanded to burn incense
in the court of a temple where beasts are killed in
honor of the Divinity, and for the priests' supper.
This slaughter-house, called a temple, would be a
place of abominable infection, if it were not con-
tinually purified ; and without the use of aromatics.

2.o8 Philosophical

the religion of the ancients would have introduced
the plague. The interior of the temple was even
festooned with flowers to sweeten the air.

The cow will not be sacrificed in the burning ter-
ritory of the Indian peninsula, because it supplies
the necessary article of milk, and is very rare in
arid and barren districts, and because its flesh, being
dry and tough, and yielding but little nourishment,
would afford the Brahmins but miserable cheer.
On the contrary, the cow will be considered sacred,
in consequence of its rareness and utility.

The temple of Jupiter Ammon, where the heat
is excessive, will be entered only with bare feet. To
perform his devotions at Copenhagen, a man re-
quires his feet to be warm and well covered.

It is not thus with doctrine. Polytheism has
been believed in all climates ; and it is equally easy
for a Crim Tartar and an inhabitant of Mecca to
acknowledge one only incommunicable God, neither
begotten nor begetting. It is by doctrine, more than
by rites, that a religion extends from one climate
to another. The doctrine of the unity of God
passed rapidly from iSIedina to Alount Caucasus.
Climate, then, yields to opinion.

The Arabs said to the Turks : "We practiced
the ceremony of circumcision in Arabia without
very well knowing why. It was an ancient usage
of the priests of Egypt to offer to Oshiret, or Osiris,
a small portion of what they considered most valu-
able. We had adopted this custom three thousand

Dictionary. 209

years before we became Mahometans. You will be-
come circumcised like us ; you will bind yourself to
sleep with one of your wives every Friday, and to
give two and a half per cent, of your income an-
nually to the poor. We drink nothing but water
and sherbet ; all intoxicating liquors are forbidden
us. In Arabia they are pernicious. You will em-
brace the same regimen, although you should be
passionately fond of wine ; and even although, on
the banks of the Phasis and Araxes, it should often
be necessary for you. In short, if you wish to go to
heaven, and to obtain good places there, you will
take the road through Mecca."

The inhabitants north of the Caucasus subject
themselves to these laws, and adopt, in the fullest
extent, a religion which was never framed for them.

In Eg}'pt the emblematical worship of animals
succeeded to the doctrines of Thaut. The gods of
the Romans afterwards shared Egypt with the dogs,
the cats, and the crocodiles. To the Roman religion
succeeded Christianity ; that was completely ban-
ished by Mahometanism, which will perhaps be
superseded by some new religion.

In all these changes climate has effected nothing ;

government has done everything. We are here

considering only second causes, without raising our

unhallowed eyes to that Providence which directs

them. The Christian religion, which received its

birth in Syria, and grew up towards its fulness of

stature in Alexandria, inhabits now those countries
Vol. 7—14

2 1 o Philosophical

where Teutat and Irminsul, Freya and Odin, were
formerly adored.

There are some nations whose religion is not the
result either of climate or of government. What
cause detached the north of Germany, Denmark,
three parts of Switzerland, Holland, England, Scot-
land, and Ireland, from the Romish communion?
Poverty. Indulgences, and deliverance from purga-
tory for the souls of those whose bodies were at that
time in possession of very little money, were sold
too dear. The prelates and monks absorbed the
whole revenue of a province. People adopted a
cheaper religion. In short, after numerous civil
wars, it was concluded that the pope's religion was
a good one for nobles, and the reformed one for
citizens. Time will show whether the religion of
the Greeks or of the Turks will prevail on the coasts
of the Euxine and ^gean seas.

COHERENCE— COHESION— ADHESION.

The power by which the parts of bodies are kept
together. It is a phenomenon the most common,
but the least understood. Newton derides the
hooked atoms, by means of which it has been at-
tempted to explain coherence; for it still remained
to be known why they are hooked, and why they
cohere. He treats with no greater respect those
who have explained cohesion by rest. "It is," says
he, "an occult quality."

Dictionary. 211

He has recourse to an attraction. But is not
this attraction, which may indeed exist, but is by
no means capable of demonstration, itself an occult
quality? The grand attraction of the heavenly
bodies is demonstrated and calculated. That of ad-
hering bodies is incalculable. But how can we ad-
mit a force that is immeasurable to be of the same
nature as one that can be measured ?

Nevertheless, it is demonstrated that the force of
attraction acts upon all the planets and all heavy
bodies in proportion to their solidity ; but it acts
on all the particles of matter ; it is, therefore, very
probable that, while it exists in every part in refer-
ence to the whole, it exists also in every part in ref-
erence to cohesion ; coherence, therefore, may be
the effect of attraction.

This opinion appears admissible till a better one
can be founds and that better is not easily to be met
with.

COMMERCE.

Since the fall of Carthage, no people had been
powerful in commerce and arms at the same time,
until Venice set the example. The Portuguese
having passed the Cape of Good Hope, were, for
some time, great lords on the coast of India, and
even formidable in Europe. The United Provinces
have only been warriors in spite of themselves, and
it was not as united between themselves, but as
united with England that they assisted to hold the

211 Philosophical

balance of Europe at the commencement of the
eighteenth century.

Carthage, Venice, and Amsterdam have been
powerful ; but they have acted like those people
among us, who, having amassed money by trade,
buy lordly estates. Neither Carthage, Venice, Hol-
land, nor any people, have commenced by being war-
riors, and even conquerors, to finish by being mer-
chants. The' English only answer this descrip-
tion; they had fought a long time before they
knew how to reckon. They did not know, when
they gained the battles of Agincourt, Crecy, and
Poitiers, that they were able to deal largely in
corn, and make broadcloth, which would be of much
more value to them than such victories. The
knowledge of these arts alone has augmented, en-
riched, and strengthened the nation. It is only be-
cause the English have become merchants that Lon-
don exceeds Paris in extent and number of citizens ;
that they can spread two hundred ships of war over
the seas, and keep royal allies in pay.

When Louis XIV. made Italy tremble, and his
armies, already masters of Savoy and Piedmont,
were ready to take Turin, Prince Eugene was
obliged to march to the skirts of Germany, to the
succor of the duke of Savoy. Having no money,
without which he could neither take nor defend
towns, he had recourse to the English merchants.
In half an hour they advanced him the sum of five
millions of livres, with which he delivered Turin,

Dictionary. 213

beat the French, and wrote this Httle billet to those
who had lent it him : "Gentlemen, I have received
your money, and I flatter myself that I have em-
ployed it to your satisfaction." All this excites just
pride in an English merchant, and makes him
venture to compare himself, and not without reason,
to a Roman citizen. Thus the younger sons of a
peer of the realm disdain not to be merchants. Lord
Townsend, minister of state, had a brother who was
contented with being a merchant in the city. At the
time that Lord Orford governed England, his
younger brother was a factor at Aleppo, whence he
would not return, and where he died. This custom —
which, however, begins to decline — appeared mon-
strous to the petty German princes. They could
not conceive how the son of a peer of England was
only a rich and powerful trader, while in Germany
they are all princes. We have seen nearly thirty
highnesses of the same name, having nothing for
their fortunes but old armories and aristocratical
hauteur. In France, anybody may be a marquis
that likes ; and whoever arrives at Paris from a
remote province, with money to spend, and a name
ending in ac or ille, may say : "A man like me T'
"A man of my quality !" and sovereignly despise a
merchant; while the merchant so often hears his
profession spoken of with disdain that he is weak
enough to blush at it. Which is the more useful to
a state — a well-powdered lord, who knows precisely
at what hour the king rises and retires, and who

214 Philosophical

gives himself airs of greatness, while playing the
part of a slave in the antechamber of a minister ; or
a merchant who enriches his country, sends orders
from his office to Surat and Aleppo, and contributes
to the happiness of the world ?

COMMON SENSE.

There is sometimes in vulgar expressions an
image of what passes in the heart of all men.
"Seiisus cominiinis" signified among the Romans
not only common sense, but also humanity and sensi-
bility. As we are not equal to the Romans, this
word with us conveys not half what it did with
them. It signifies only good sense — plain, straight-
forward reasoning — the first notion of ordinary
things — a medium between dulness and intellect.
To say, "that man has not common sense," is a gross
insult ; while the expression, "that man has common
sense," is an affront also; it would imply that he
was not quite stupid, but that he wanted intellect.
But what is the meaning of common sense, if it be
not sense? Men, when they invented this term,
supposed that nothing entered the mind except
by the senses ; otherwise would they have used the
word "sense" to signify the result of the common
faculty of reason?

It is said, sometimes, that common sense is very
rare. What does this expression mean? That, in
many men, dawning reason is arrested in its prog-
ress by some prejudices ; that a man who judges

Dictionary. 1 1 5

reasonably on one affair will deceive himself grossly
in another. The Arab, who, besides being a good
calculator, was a learned chemist and an exact as-
tronomer, nevertheless believed that Mahomet put
half of the moon into his sleeve.

How is it that he was so much above common
sense in the three sciences above mentioned, and
beneath it when he proceeded to the subject of half
the moon? It is because, in the first case, he had
seen with his own eyes, and perfected his own in-
telligence ; and, in the second, he had used the eyes
of others, by shutting his own, and perverting the
common sense within him.

How could this strange perversion of mind
operate? How could the ideas which had so regu-
lar and firm a footing in his brain, on many sub-
jects, halt on another a thousand times more palpa-
ble and easy to comprehend ? This man had always
the same principles of intelligence in him ; he must
have therefore possessed a vitiated organ, as it some-
times happens that the most delicate epicure has a
depraved taste in regard to a particular kind of
nourishment.

How did the organ of this Arab, who saw half
of the moon in Mahomet's sleeve, become dis-
ordered ? — By fear. It had been told him that if he
did not believe in this sleeve his soul, immediately
after his death, in passing over the narrow bridge,
would fall forever into the abyss. He was told much
worse — if ever you doubt this sleeve, one dervish

21 6 Philosophical

will treat you with ignominy ; another will prove you
mad, because, having all possible motives for credi-
bility, you will not submit your superb reason to
evidence ; a third will refer you to the little divan of
a small province, and you will be legally impaled.

All this produces a panic in the good Arab, his
wife, sister, and all his little family. They pos-
sess good sense in all the rest, but on this article
their imagination is diseased like that of Pascal,
who continually saw a precipice near his coucli.
But did our Arab really believe in the sleeve of
Mahomet ? No ; he endeavored to believe it ; he
said, "It is impossible, but true — I believe that which
I do not credit." He formed a chaos of ideas in his
head in regard to this sleeve, which he feared to dis-
entangle, and he gave up his common sense.

CONFESSION.

Repentance for one's faults is the only thing
that can repair the loss of innocence ; and to appear
to repent of them, we must begin by acknowledging
them. Confession, therefore, is almost as ancient as
civil society. Confession was practised in all the
mysteries of Egypt, Greece, and Samothrace. We
are told, in the life of Marcus Aurelius, that when
he deigned to participate in the Eleusinian mys-
teries, he confessed himself to the hierophant,
though no man had less need of confession than
himself.

This might be a very salutary ceremony; it

Dictionary. 217

might also become very detrimental ; for such is the
case with all human institutions. We know the
answer of the Spartan whom a hierophant would
have persuaded to confess himself : "To whom
should I acknowledge my faults? to God, or to
thee?" "To God," said the priest. "Retire, then,
O man."

It is hard to determine at what time this practice
was established among the Jews, who borrowed a
great many of their rites from their neighbors. The
Mishna, v/hich is the collection of the Jewish laws,
says that often, in confessing, they placed their hand
upon a calf belonging to the priest ; and this was
called "the confession of calves."

It is said, in the same Mishna, that every culprit
under sentence of death, went and confessed himself
before witnesses, in some retired spot, a short time
before his execution. If he felt himself guilty he
said, "May my death atone for all my sins !" If in-
nocent, he said, "May my death atone for all my
sins, excepting that of which I am now accused."

On the day of the feast which was called by the
Jews the solemn atonement, the devout among them
confessed to one another, specifying their sins. The
confessor repeated three times thirteen words of the
seventy-seventh Psalm, at the same time giving the
confessed thirty-nine stripes, which the latter re-
turned, and they went away quits. It is said that
this ceremony is still in use.

St. John's reputation for sanctity brought crowds

1 1 8 Philosophical

to confess to him, as they came to be baptized by
him with the baptism of justice; but we are not
informed that St. John gave his penitents thirty-
nine stripes. Confession was not then a sacrament ;
for this there are several reasons. The first is, that
the word "sacrament" was at that time unknown,
which reason is of itself sufficient. The Christians
took their confession from the Jewish rites, and not
from the mysteries of Isis and Ceres. The Jews
confessed to their associates, and the Christians did
also. It afterwards appeared more convenient that
this should be the privilege of the priests. No rite,
no ceremony, can be established but in process of
time. It was hardly possible that some trace should
not remain of the ancient usage of the laity of con-
fessing to one another.

In Constantine's reign, it was at first the practice
publicly to confess public offences. In the fifth cen-
tury, after the schism of Novatus and Novatian,
penitentiaries were instituted for the absolution of
such as had fallen into idolatry. This confession to
penitentiary priests was abolished under the Em-
peror Theodosius. A woman having accused herself
aloud, to the penitentiary of Constantinople, of
Iving with the deacon, caused so much scandal and
disturbance throughout the city that Nectarius per-
mitted all the faithful to approach the holy table
without confession, and to communicate in obedi-
ence to their consciences alone. Hence these words
of St. John Chrysostom, who succeeded Nectarius :

Dictionary. 2 1 9

"Confess yourselves continually to God ; I do not
bring you forward on a stage to discover your faults
to your fellow-servants ; show your wounds to God,
and ask of Him their cure ; acknowledge your sins
to Him who will not reproach you before men ; it
were vain to strive to hide them from Him who
knows all things," etc.

It is said that the practice of auricular confession
did not begin in the west until about the seventh
century, when it was instituted by the abbots, who
required their monks to come and acknowledge their
offences to them twice a year. These abbots it was
who invented the formula : "I absolve thee to the
utmost of my power and thy need." It would surely
have been more respectful towards the Supreme
Being, as well as more just, to say : "May He for-
give both thy faults and mine !"

The good which confession has done is that it
has sometimes procured restitution from petty
thieves. The ill is, that, in the internal troubles of
states, it has sometimes forced the penitents to be
conscientiously rebellious and blood-thirsty. The
Guelph priests refused absolution to the Ghibellines,
and the Ghibellines to the Guelphs.

The counsellor of state, Lenet, relates, in his
"Memoirs," that all he could do in Burgundy to
make the people rise in favor of the Prince Conde,
detained at Vincennes by Cardinal Mazarin, was
"to let loose the priests in the confessionals" —
speaking of them as bloodhounds, who were to fan

220 Philosophical

the flame of civil war in the privacy of the confes-
sional.

At the siege of Barcelona, the monks refused ab-
solution to all who remained faithful to Philip V.
In the last revolution of Genoa, it was intimated to
all consciences that there was no salvation for who-
soever should not take up arms against the Aus-
trians. This salutary remedy has, in every age,
been converted into a poison. Whether a Sforza, a
Medici, a Prince of Orange, or a King of France
was to be assassinated, the parricide always pre-
pared himself by the sacrament of confession. Louis
XL, and the Marchioness de Brinvilliers always
confessed as soon as they had committed any great
crime; and they confessed often, as gluttons take
medicines to increase their appetite.

The Disclosure of Confessions.

Jaurigini and Balthazar Gerard, the assassins of
William L, Prince of Orange, the dominican Jacques
Clement, Jean Chatel, the Feuillant Ravaillac, and
all the other parricides of that day, confessed them-
selves before committing their crimes. Fanaticism,
in those deplorable ages, had arrived at such a pitch
that confession was but an additional pledge for
the consummation of villainy. It became sacred for
this reason — that confession is a sacrament.

Strada himself says : ^'Jaurigni nan ante f acinus
aggredi sustinuit, quam expiatam noxis animam
apud Dominicanum sacerdotem ccelesti pane Urma-

Dictionary. 221

vent." "Jaurigini did not venture upon this act until
he had purged his soul by confession at the feet of
a Dominican, and fortified it by the celestial bread."
We find, in the interrogatory of Ravaillac, that
the wretched man, quitting the Feuillans, and wish-
ing to be received among the Jesuits, applied to the
Jesuit d'Aubigny and, after speaking of several ap-
paritions that he had seen, showed him a knife, on
the blade of which was engraved a heart and a cross,
and said, "This heart indicates that the king's heart
must be brought to make war on the Huguenots."

Perhaps, if this d'Aubigny had been zealous and
prudent enough to have informed the king of these
words, and given him a faithful picture of the man
who had uttered them, the best of kings would not
have been assassinated.

On August 20, 1610, three months after the death
of Henry IV., whose wounds yet bleed in the heart
of every Frenchman, the Advocate-General Sirvin,
still of illustrious memory, required that the Jesuits
should be made to sign the four following rules :

I. That the council is above the pope. 2. That
the pope cannot deprive the king of any of his rights
by excommunication. 3. That ecclesiastics, like
other persons, are entirely subject to the king. 4.
That a priest who is made acquainted, by confession,
with a conspiracy against the king and the state,
must disclose it to the magistrates.

On the 22nd, the parliament passed a decree, by
which it forbade the Jesuits to instruct youth before

22 2 Philosophical

tliey had signed these four articles ; but the court of
Rome was then so powerful, and that of France so
feeble, that this decree was of no efifect. A fact
worthy of attention is, that this same court of Rome,
which did not choose that confession should be dis-
closed when the lives of sovereigns were endan-
gered, obliged its confessors to denounce to the in-
quisitors those whom their female penitents accused
in confession of having seduced and abused them.
Paul IV., Pius IV., Clement VIIL, and Gregory
XV., ordered these disclosures to be made.

This was a very embarrassing snare for con-
fessors and female penitents ; it was making the
sacrament a register of informations, and even of
sacrileges. For, by the ancient canons, and es-
pecially by the Lateran Council under Innocent III.,
every priest that disclosed a confession, of whatever
nature, was to be interdicted and condemned to per-
petual imprisonment.

But this is not the worst ; here are four popes, of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, ordering the
disclosure of a sin of impurity, but not permitting
that of a parricide. A woman, in the sacrament, de-
clares, or pretends, before a carmelite, that a cor-
delier has seduced her ; and the carmelite must de-
nounce the cordelier. A fanatical assassin, thinking
that he serves God by killing his prince, comes and
consults a confessor on this case of conscience ; and
the confessor commits a sacrilege if he saves his
sovereign's life.

Dictionary. 223

This absurd and horrible contradiction is one un-
fortunate consequence of the constant opposition
existing for so many centuries between the civil and
ecclesiastical laws. The citizen finds himself, on
fifty occasions, placed without alternative between
sacrilege and high treason ; the rules of good and
evil being not yet drawn from beneath the chaos
under which they have so long been buried. The
Jesuit Coton's reply to Henry IV. will endure longer
than his order. Would you reveal the confession of
a man who had resolved to assassinate me?" "No;
but I would throw myself between him and you."

Father Coton's maxim has not always been fol-
lowed. In some countries there are state mysteries
unknown to the public, of which revealed confes-
sions form no inconsiderable part. By means of
suborned confessors the secrets of prisoners are
learned. Some confessors, to reconcile their con-
science with their interest, make use of a singular
artifice. They give an account, not precisely of what
the prisoner has told them, but of what he has not
told them. If, for example, they are employed to
find out whether an accused person has for his ac-
complice a Frenchman or an Italian, they say to the
man who employs them, "the prisoner has sworn to
me that no Italian was informed of his designs ;"
whence it is concluded that the suspected French-
man is guilty.

Bodin thus expresses himself, in his book, "De
la Reptiblique" : "Nor must it be concealed, if the

224 Philosophical

culprit is discovered to have conspired against the
life of the sovereign, or even to have willed it only ;
as in the case of a gentleman of Normandy, who
confessed to a monk that he had a mind to kill
Francis I. The monk apprised the king, who sent
the gentleman to the court of parliament, where he
was condemned to death, as I learned from M.
Canage, an advocate in parliament."

The writer of this article was himself almost wit-
ness to a disclosure still more important and singu-
lar. It is known how the Jesuit Daubenton betrayed
Philip v., king of Spain, to whom he was confessor.
He thought, from a very mistaken policy, that he
should report the secrets of his penitent to the duke
of Orleans, regent of the kingdom, and had the
imprudence to write to him what he should not,
even verbally, communicate to any one. The duke
of Orleans sent his letter to the king of Spain. The
Jesuit was discarded, and died a short time after.
This is an authenticated fact.

It is still a grave and perplexing question, in
what cases confessions should be disclosed. For,
if we decide that it should be in cases of human
high treason, this treason may be made to include
any direct ofifence against majesty, even the smug-
gling of salt or muslins. Much more should high
treasons against the Divine Majesty be disclosed ;
and these may be extended to the smallest faults, as
having missed evening service.

It would, then, be very important to come to

Dictionary. 225

a perfect understanding about what confessions
should be disclosed, and what should be kept secret.
Yet would such a decision be very dangerous ; for
how many things are there which must not be in-
vestigated !

Pontas, who, in three folio volumes, decides on
all the possible cases of conscience in France, and
is unknown to the rest of the world, says that on
no occasion should confession be disclosed. The par-
liaments have decided the contrary. Which are
we to believe? Pontas, or the guardians of the
laws of the realm, who watch over the lives of
princes and the safety of the state ?

Whether Laymen and Women Have Been Con-
fessors F

As, in the old law, the laity confessed to one
another ; so, in the new law, they long had the same
privilege by custom. In proof of this, let it suffice to
cite the celebrated Joinville, who expressly says that
"the constable of Cyprus confessed himself to him,
and he gave him absolution, according to the right
which he had so to do." St. Thomas, in his dream,
expresses himself thus : "Confessio ex defcctu sa-
cerdotis laico facta, sacramcntalis est quodani
fnodo." "Confession made to a layman, in default
of a priest, is in some sort sacramental."

We find in the life of St. Burgundosarius, and in
the rule of an unknown saint, that the nuns con-
fessed their very grossest sins to their abbess. The
Vol. 7 — 15

2a6 Philosophical

rule of St. Donatus ordains that the nuns shall dis-
cover their faults to their superior three times a day.
The capitulars of our kings say that abbesses must
be forbidden the exercise of the right which they
have arrogated against the custom of the holy
church, of giving benediction and imposing hands,
which seems to signify the pronouncing of absolu-
tion, and supposes the confession of sins. Marcus,
patriarch of Alexandria, asks Balzamon, a cele-
brated canonist of his time, whether permission
should be granted to abbesses to hear confessions,
to which Balzamon answers in the negative. We
have, in the canon law, a decree of Pope Innocent
III., enjoining the bishops of Valencia and Burgos,
in Spain, to prevent certain abbesses from blessing
their nuns, from confessing, and from public preach-
ing: "Although," says he, "the blessed \^irgin
Mary was superior to all the apostles in dignity
and in merit, yet it is not to her, but to the apostles,
that the Lord has confided the keys of the kingdom
of heaven."

So ancient was this right, that we find it estab-
lished in the rules of St. Basil. He permits abbesses
to confess their nuns, conjointly with a priest.
Father Martene, in his "Rights of the Church,"
says that, for a long time, abbesses confessed their
nuns ; but, adds he, they were so curious, that it
was found necessary to deprive them of this
privilege.

The ex-Jesuit Nonnotte should confess himself

Dictionary. 227

and do penance ; not for having been one of the
most ignorant of daubers on paper, for that is no
crime ; not for having given the name of errors to
truths which he did not understand ; but for having,
with the most insolent stupidity, calumniated the
author of this article, and called his brother raca
(a fool), while he denied these facts and many
others, about which he knew not one word. He has
put himself in danger of hell fire ; let us hope that
he will ask pardon of God for his enormous folly.
We desire not the death of a sinner, but that he
turn from his wickedness and live.

It has long been debated why men, very famous
in this part of the world where confession is in use,
have died without this sacrament. Such are Leo
X., Pelisson, and Cardinal Dubois. The cardinal
had his perineum opened by La Peyronie's bistoury ;
but he might have confessed and communicated be-
fore the operation. Pelisson, who was a Protestant
until he was forty years old, became a convert that
he might be made master of requests and have
benefices. As for Pope Leo X., when surprised by
death, he was so much occupied with temporal con-
cerns, that he had no time to think of spiritual ones.

Confession Tickets.

In Protestant countries confession is made to
God ; in Catholic ones, to man. The Protestants say
you can hide nothing from God, whereas man knows
only what you choose to tell him. As we shall

228 Philosophical

never meddle with controversy, we shall not enter
here into this old dispute. Our Hterary society is
composed of Catholics and Protestants, united by
the love of letters ; we must not suffer ecclesiastical
quarrels to sow dissension among us. We will con-
tent ourselves with once more repeating the fine
answer of the Greek already mentioned, to the priest
who would have had him confess in the mysteries
of Ceres : "Is it to God, or to thee, that I am to ad-
dress myself ?" "To God." "Depart then, O man,"

In Italy, and in all the countries of obedience,
every one, without distinction, must confess and
communicate. If you have a stock of enormous
sins on hand, you have also grand penitentiaries to
absolve you. If your confession is worth nothing,
so much the worse for you. At a very reasonable
rate, you get a printed receipt, which admits you to
communion ; and all the receipts are thrown into a
pix ; such is the rule.

These bearers' tickets were unknown at Paris
until about the year 1750, when an archbishop of
Paris bethought himself of introducing a sort of
spiritual bank, to extirpate Jansenism and insure the
triumph of the bull Unigenitus. It was his pleasure
that extreme unction and the viaticum should be
refused to every sick person who did not produce a
ticket of confession, signed by a constitutionary
priest.

This was refusing the sacrament to nine-tenths
of Paris, In vain was he told : "Think what you

Dictionary. 229

are doing ; either these sacraments are necessary, to
escape damnation, or salvation may be obtained
without them by faith, hope, charity, good works,
and the merits of our Saviour. If salvation be at-
tainable without this viaticum, your tickets are use-
less ; if the sacraments be absolutely necessary, you
damn all whom you deprive of them ; you consign
to eternal fire seven hundred thousand souls, suppos-
ing you live long enough to bury them ; this is vio-
lent ; calm yourself, and let each one die as well as
he can."

In this dilemma he gave no answer, but persisted.
It is horrible to convert religion, which should be
man's consolation, into his torment. The parlia-
ment, in whose hands is the high police, finding that
Society was disturbed, opposed — according to cus-
tom-— decrees to mandaments. But ecclesiastical
discipline would not yield to legal authority. The
magistracy was under the necessity of using force,
and to send archers to obtain for the Parisians con-
fession, communion, and interment.

By this excess of absurdity, men's minds were
soured and cabals were formed at court, as if there
had been a farmer-general to be appointed, or a
minister to be disgraced. In the discussion of a
question there are always incidents mixed up that
have no radical connection with it; and in this case
so much so, that all the members of the parliament
were exiled, as was also the archbishop in his turn.

These confession tickets would, in the times pre-

230 Philosophical

ceding, have caused a civil war, but happily, in our
days, they produced only civil cavils. The spirit of
philosophy, which is no other than reason, has be-
come, with all honest men, the only antidote against
these epidemic disorders,

CONFISCATION.

It is well observed, in the "Dictionnairc Encyclo-
pedique," in the article "Confiscation," that the Use,
whether public, or royal, or seignorial, or imperial,
or disloyal, was a small basket of reeds or osiers, in
which was put the little money that was received or
could be extorted. We now use bags ; the royal Use
is the royal hag.

In several countries of Europe it is a received
maxim, that whosoever confiscates the body, con-
fiscates the goods also. This usage is established
in those countries in particular where custom holds
the place of law ; and in all cases, an entire family
is punished for the fault of one man only.

To confiscate the body, is not to put a man's body
into his sovereign lord's basket. This phrase, in the
barbarous language of the bar, means to get posses-
sion of the body of a citizen, in order either to take
away his life, or to condemn him to banishment for
life. If he is put to death, or escapes death by
flight, his goods are seized. Thus it is not enough
to put a man to death for his offences ; his children,
too, must be deprived of the means of living.

Dictionary. 231

In more countries than one, the rigor of custom
confiscates the property of a man who has voluntar-
ily released himself from the miseries of this life,
and his children are reduced to beggary because
their father is dead. In some Roman Catholic prov-
inces, the head of a family is condemned to the
galleys for life, by an arbitrary sentence, for having
harbored a preacher in his house, or for having
heard one of his sermons in some cavern or desert
place, and his wife and family are forced to beg
their bread.

This jurisprudence, which consists in depriving
orphans of their food, was unknown to the Roman
commonwealth. Sulla introduced it in his proscrip-
tions, and it must be acknowledged that a rapine
invented by Sulla was not an example to be fol-
lowed. Nor was this law, which seems to have been
dictated by inhumanity and avarice alone, followed
either by Caesar, or by the good Emperor Trajan,
or by the Antonines, whose names are still pro-
nounced in every nation with love and reverence.
Even under Justinian, confiscations took place only
in cases of high treason. Those who were accused
having been, for the most part, men of great pos-
sessions, it seems that Justinian made this ordi-
nance through avarice alone. It also appears that,
in the times of feudal anarchy, the princes and lords
of lands, being not very rich, sought to increase
their treasure by the condemnation of their subjects.
They were allowed to draw a revenue from crime.

121 Philosophical

Their laws being arbitrary, and the Roman juris-
prudence unknown among them, their customs,
whether whimsical or cruel, prevailed. But now
that the power of sovereigns is founded on immense
and assured wealth, their treasure needs no longer
to be swollen b)^ the slender wreck of the fortunes
of some unhappy family. It is true that the goods
so appropriated are abandoned to the first who asks
for them. But is it for one citizen to fatten on the
remains of the blood of another citizen?

Confiscation is not admitted in countries where
the Roman law is established, except within the
jurisdiction of the parliament of Toulouse. It was
formerly established at Calais, where it was abol-
ished by the English when they were masters of that
place. It appears very strange that the inhabitants
of the capital live under a more rigorous law than
those of the smaller towns; so true is it, that juris-
prudence has often been established by chance, with-
out regularity, without uniformity, as the huts are
built in a village.

The following was spoken by Advocate-General
Omer Talon, in full parliament, at the most glorious
period in the annals of France, in 1673, concerning
the property of one Mademoiselle de Canillac, which
had been confiscated. Reader, attend to this speech ;
it is not in the style of Cicero's oratory, but it is
curious :

"In the thirteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, God
says, Tf thou shalt find a city where idolatry pre-

Dictionary. 133

vails, thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that
city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly,
and all that is therein. And thou shalt gather all
the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof,
and shalt burn with fire the city and all the spoil
thereof, every whit, for the Lord thy God.'

"So, in the crime of high treason, the king seized
the property, and the children were deprived of it.
Naboth having been proceeded against, 'quia male-
dixerat regi' King Ahab took possession of his
inheritance. David, being apprised that JMephibo-
sheth had taken part in the rebellion, gave all his
goods to Sheba, who brought him the new's — 'Tibi
sunt omnia quae fnerunt Mephihosheth.' "

The question here was, who should inherit the
property of Mademoiselle de Canillac — property for-
merly confiscated from her father, abandoned by the
king to a keeper of the royal treasure, and after-
wards given by this keeper of the royal treasure to
the testatrix. And in this case of a woman of Au-
vergne a lawyer refers us to that of Ahab, one of the
petty kings of a part of Palestine, who confiscated
Naboth's vineyard, after assassinating its pro-
prietor with the poniard of Jewish justice—an abom-
inable act, which has become a proverb to inspire
men with a horror for usurpation. Assuredly,
Naboth's vineyard has no connection with Made-
moiselle de Canillac's inheritance. Nor do the mur-
der and confiscation of the goods of Mephihosheth,
grandson of King Saul, and son of David's friend

234 Philosophical

Jonathan, bear a much greater affinity to this lady's
will.

With this pedantry, this rage for citations for-
eign to the subject ; with this ignorance of the first
principles of human nature ; with these ill-conceived
and ill-adapted prejudices, has jurisprudence been
treated on by men who, in their sphere, have had
some reputation.

CONSCIENCE.

SECTION I.

Of the Conscience of Good and of Evil.

Locke has demonstrated — if we may use that
term in morals and metaphysics — that we have no
innate ideas or principles. He was obliged to dem-
onstrate this position at great length, as the con-
trary was at that time universally believed. It
hence clearly follows that it is necessary to instil
just ideas and good principles into the mind as soon
as it acquires the use of its faculties.

Locke adduces the example of savages, who kill
and devour their neighbors without any remorse of
conscience ; and of Christian soldiers, decently edu-
cated, who, on the taking of a city by assault,
plunder, slay, and violate, not merely without re-
morse, but with rapture, honor, and glory, and with
the applause of all their comrades.

It is perfectly certain that, in the massacres of St.
Bartholomew, and in the "autos-da-fe," the holy acts

Dictionary. 235

of faith of the Inquisition, no murderer's conscience
ever upbraided him with having massacred men,
women, and children, or with the shrieks, faintings,
and dying tortures of his miserable victims, whose
only crime consisted in keeping Easter in a man-
ner different from that of the inquisitors. It results,
therefore, from what has been stated, that we have
no other conscience than what is created in us by
the spirit of the age, by example, and by our own
dispositions and reflections.

Man is born without principles, but with the fac-
ulty of receiving them. His natural disposition will
incline him either to cruelty or kindness ; his under-
standing will in time inform him that the square of
twelve is a hundred and forty-four, and that he
ought not to do to others what he would not that
others should do to him ; but he will not, of him-
self, acquire these truths in early childhood. He
will not understand the first, and he will not feel the
second.

A young savage who, when hungry, has received
from his father a piece of another savage to eat,
will, on the morrow, ask for the like meal, without
thinking about any obligation not to treat a neighbor
otherwise than he would be treated himself. He
acts, mechanically and irresistibly, directly contrary
to the eternal principle.

Nature has made a provision against such hor-
rors. She has given to man a disposition to pity,
and the power of comprehending truth. These two

0.^6 Philosophical

gifts of God constitute the foundation of civil so-
ciety. This is the reason there have ever been but
few cannibals; and which renders life, among civ-
ilized nations, a little tolerable. Fathers and moth-
ers bestow on their children an education which
soon renders them social, and this education confers
on them a conscience.

Pure religion and morality, early inculcated, so
strongly impress the human heart that, from the age
of sixteen or seventeen, a single bad action will
not be performed without the upbraidings of con-
science. Then rush on those headlong passions
which war against conscience, and sometimes de-
stroy it. During the conflict, men, hurried on by
the tempest of their feelings, on various occasions
consult the advice of others ; as, in physical diseases,
they ask it of those who appear to enjoy good health.

This it is which has produced casuists; that is,
persons who decide on cases of conscience. One
of the wisest casuists was Cicero. In his book of
"Offices," or "Duties" of man, he investigates points
of the greatest nicety; but long before him Zoro-
aster had appeared in the world to guide the con-^
science by the most beautiful precept, "If you doubt
whether an action be good or bad, abstain from
doing it/' We treat of this elsewhere.

Whether a Judge Should Decide according to his
Conscience, or according to the Evidence.

Thomas Aquinas, you are a great saint- and a

Dictionary. 237

great divine, and no Dominican has a greater ven-
eration for you than I have ; but you have decided,
in your "Summary," that a judge ought to give
sentence according to the evidence produced against
the person accused, although he knows that person
to be perfectly innocent. You maintain that the dep-
osition of witnesses, which must inevitably be false,
and the pretended proofs resulting from the process,
which are impertinent, ought to weigh down the
testimony of his own senses. He saw the crime
committed by another; and yet, according to yoU,
he ought in conscience to condemn the accused, al-
though his conscience tells him the accused is inno-
cent. According to your doctrine, therefore, if the
judge had himself committed the crime in question,
his conscience ought to oblige him to condemn the
man falsely accused of it.

In my conscience, great saint, I conceive that you
are most absurdly and most dreadfully deceived.
It is a pity that, while possessing such a knowledge
of canon law, you should be so little acquainted with
natural law\ The duty of a magistrate to be jiist,
precedes that of being a formalist. If, in virtue oi
evidence which can never exceed probability, I were
to condemn a mart whose innocence I was otherwise
convinced of, I should consider myself a fool and
an assassin.

Fortunately all the tribunals of the world think
differently from you. I know not whether Fari-
naceus and Grillandus may be of your opinion.

238 Philosophical

However that may be, if ever you meet with
Cicero, Ulpian, Trebonian, Demoulin, the Chancellor
de I'Hopital, or the Chancellor d'Aguesseau, in the
shades, be sure to ask pardon of them for falling into
such an error.

Of a Deceitful Conscience.

The best thing perhaps that was ever said upon
this important subject is in the witty work of "Tris-
tram Shandy," written by a clergyman of the name
of Sterne, the second Rabelais of England. It re-
sembles those small satires of antiquity, the essen-
tial spirit of which is so piquant and precious.

An old half-pay captain and his corporal, assisted
by Doctor Slop, put a number of very ridiculous
questions. In these questions the French divines
are not spared. Mention is particularly made of a
memoir presented to the Sorbonne by a surgeon, re-
questing permission to baptize unborn children by
means of a clyster-pipe, which might be introduced
into the womb without injuring either the mother or
the child. At length the corporal is directed to read
to them a sermon, composed by the same clergy-
man, Sterne.

Among many particulars, superior even to those
of Rembrandt and Calot, it describes a gentleman,
a man of the world, spending his time in the pleas-
ures of the table, in gaming, and debauchery, yet
doing nothing to expose himself to the reproaches
of what is called good company, and consequently

Dictionary. 239

never incurring his own. His conscience and his
honor accompany him to the theatres, to the gam-
ing houses, and are more particularly present when
he liberally pays his lady under protection. He
punishes severely, when in office, the petty larcenies
of the vulgar, lives a life of gayety, and dies without
the slightest feeling of remorse.

Doctor Slop interrupts the reading to observe that
such a case was impossible with respect to a follower
of the Church of England, and could happen only
among papists. At last the sermon adduces the ex-
ample of David, who sometimes possessed a con-
science tender and enlightened, at others hardened
and dark.

When he has it in his power to assassinate his
king in a cavern, he scruples going beyond cutting
off a corner of his robe — here is the tender con-
science. He passes an entire year without feeling
the slightest compunction for his adultery with Bath-
sheba and his murder of Uriah — here is the same
conscience in a state of obduracy and darkness.

Such, says the preacher, are the greater number
of mankind. We concede to this clergy-man that
the great ones of the world are very often in this
state ; the torrent of pleasures and affairs urges
them almost irresistibly on ; they have no time to
keep a conscience. Conscience is proper enough'
for the people ; but even the people dispense with
it, when the question is how to gain money. It
is judicious, however, at times, to endeavor to

240 Philosophical

awaken conscience both in mantua-makers and in
monarchs, by the inculcation of a morahty cal-
culated to make an impression upon both ; but, in
order to make this impression, it is necessary to
preach better than modern preachers usually do,
who seldom talk effectively to either.

Liberty of Conscience.
[Translated from the German.]

[We do not adopt the whole of the following ar-
ticle; but, as it contains some truths, we did not
consider ourselves obliged to omit it; and we do
not feel ourselves called upon to justify what may
be advanced in it with too great rashness or se-
verity.—^wi/zor. ]

"The almoner of Prince , who is a Roman

Catholic, threatened an anabaptist that he would get
him banished from the small estates which the
prince governed. He told him that there were only
three authorized sects in the empire — that which
eats Jesus Christ, by faith alone, in a morsel of
bread, while drinking out of a cup ; that which eats
Jesus Christ with bread alone ; and that which eats
Jesus Christ in body and in soul, without either
bread or wine ; and that as for the anabaptist who
does not in any way eat God, he was not fit to live
in monseigneur's territory. At last, the conversa-
tion kindling into greater violence, the almoner
fiercely threatened the anabaptist that he would get
him hanged. 'So much the worse for his highness,'

Dictionary. 241

replied the anabaptist ; 'I am a large manufacturer ;
I employ two hundred workmen; I occasion the
influx of two hundred thousand crowns a year into
his territories ; my family will go and settle some-
where else ; monseigneur will in consequence be a
loser.'

" 'But suppose monseigneur hangs up your two
hundred workmen and your family,' rejoined the
almoner, 'and gives your manufactory to good Cath-
olics ?'

" 'I defy him to do it,' says the old gentleman,
*A manufactory is not to be given like a farm ; be-
cause industry cannot be given. It would be more
silly for him to act so than to order all his horses
to be killed, because, being a bad horseman, one
may have thrown him off his back. The interest
of monseigneur does not consist in my swallowing
the godhead in a wafer, but in my procuring some-
thing to eat for his subjects, and increasing the rev-
enues by my industry. I am a gentleman ; and al-
though I had the misfortune not to be born such, my
occupation would compel me to become one ; for
mercantile transactions are of a very different na-
ture from those of a court, and from your own.
There can be no success in them without probity.
Of what consequence is it to you that I was baptized
at what is called the age of discretion, and you while
you were an infant? Of what consequence is it to
you that I worship God after the manner of my
fathers? Were you able to follow up your wise

Vol. V— 16

242 Philosophical

maxims, from one end of the world to the other,
you will hang up the Greek, who does not believe
that the spirit proceeds from the Father and the
Son ; all the English, all the Hollanders, Danes,
Swedes, Icelanders, Prussians, Hanoverians, Sax-
ons, Holsteiners, Hessians, Wurtembergers, Ber-
nese, Hamburgers, Cossacks, Wallachians, and
Russians, none of whom believe the pope to be in-
fallible ; all the Mussulmans, who believe in one
God, and who give him neither father nor mother ;
the Indians, whose religion is more ancient than the
Jewish ; and the lettered Chinese, who, for the space
of four thousand years, have served one only God
without superstition and without fanaticism. This,
then, is what you would perform had you but the
power!' 'Most assuredly,' says the monk, 'for the
zeal of the house of the Lord devours me.' 'Zelus
domus suce comedit me'

" 'Just tell me now, my good almoner,' resumed
the anabaptist, 'are you a Dominican, or a Jesuit,
or a devil ?' 'I am a Jesuit,' says the other. 'Alas,
my friend, if you are not a devil, why do you ad-
vance things so utterly diabolical?' 'Because the
reverend father, the rector, has commanded me to
do so.' 'And who commanded the reverend father,
the rector, to commit such an abomination?' 'The
provincial.' 'From whom did the provincial receive
the command ?' 'From our general, and all to please
the pope.'

"The poor anabaptist exclaimed : 'Ye holy popes,

Dictionary. 243

who are at Rome in possession of the throne of the
Caesars — archbishops, bishops, and abbes, become
sovereigns, I respect and fly you ; but if, in the re-
cesses of your heart, you confess that your opulence
and power are founded only on the ignorance and
stupidity of our fathers, at least enjoy them with
moderation. We do not wish to dethrone you ; but
do not crush us. Enjoy yourselves, and let us be
quiet. If otherwise, tremble, lest at last people
should lose their patience, and reduce you, for the
good of your souls, to the condition of the apostles,
of whom you pretend to be the successors.'

" 'Wretch ! you would wish the pope and the
bishop of Wiirtemberg to gain heaven by evan-
gelical poverty !' 'You, reverend father, would wish
to have me hanged !' "

CONSEQUENCE.

What is our real nature, and what sort of a cur-
ious and contemptible understanding do we pos-
sess? A man may, it appears, draw the most cor-
rect and luminous conclusions, and yet be destitute
of common sense. This is, in fact, too true. The
Athenian fool, who believed that all the vessels
which came into the port belonged to him, could cal-
culate to a nicety what the cargoes of those vessels
were worth, and within how many days they would
arrive from Smyrna at the Pirseus.

We have seen idiots who could calculate and rea-
son in a still more extraordinary manner. They

144 Philosophical

were not idiots, then, you tell me. I ask your par-
don— they certainly were. They rested their whole
superstructure on an absurd principle ; they regu-
larly strung together chimeras. A man may walk
well, and go astray at the same time ; and, then, the
better he walks the farther astray he goes.

The Fo of the Indians was son of an elephant,
who condescended to produce offspring by an Indian
princess, who, in consequence of this species of
left-handed union, was brought to bed of the god
Fo. This princess was sister to an emperor of the
Indies. Fo, then, was the nephew of that emperor,
and the grandson of the elephant and the monarch
were cousins-german ; therefore, according to the
laws of the state, the race of the emperor being ex-
tinct, the descendants of the elephant become the
rightful successors. Admit the principle, and the
conclusion is perfectly correct.

It is said that the divine elephant was nine stand-
ard feet in height. You reasonably suppose that
the gate of his stable should be above nine feet in
height, in order to admit his entering with ease.
He consumed twenty pounds of rice every day, and
twenty pounds of sugar, and drank twenty-five
pounds of water. You find, by using your arith-
metic, that he swallows thirty-six thousand five hun-
dred pounds weight in the course of a year; it
is impossible to reckon more correctly. But did
your elephant ever, in fact, exist ? Was he the em-
peror's brother-in-law? Had his wife a child by

Dictionary. 545

this left-handed union ? This is the matter to be in-
vestigated. Twenty different authors, who Hved in
Cochin China, have successively written about it ;
it is incumbent on you to collate these twenty au-
thors, to weigh their testimonies, to consult ancient
records, to see if there is any mention of this ele-
phant in the public registers ; to examine whether
the whole account is not a fable, which certain iiri'-
postors have an interest in sanctioning. You pro-
ceed upon an extravagant principle, but draw from
it correct conclusions.

Logic is not so much wanting to men as the
source of logic. It is not sufficient for a madman to
say six vessels which belong to me carry two hun-
dred tons each ; the ton is two thousand pounds
weight ; I have therefore twelve hundred thousand
pounds weight of merchandise in the port of the
Piraeus. The great point is, are those vessels yours ?
That is the principle upon which your fortune de-
pends; when that is settled, you may estimate and
reckon up afterwards.

An ignorant man, who is a fanatic, and who at
the same time strictly draws his conclusions from
his premises, ought sometimes to be smothered to
death as a madman. He has read that Phineas,
transported by a holy zeal, having found a Jew in
bed with a Midianitish woman, slew them both, and
was imitated by the Levites, who massacred every
household that consisted one-half of Midianites
and the other of Jews, JJe learns that Mr. -— ,

246 Philosophical

his Catholic neighbor, intrigued with Mrs. ,

another neighbor, but a Huguenot, and he will kill
both of them without scruple. It is impossible to
act in greater consistency with principle ; but what
is the remedy for this dreadful disease of the soul?
It is to accustom children betimes to admit nothing
which shocks reason, to avoid relating to them his-
tories of ghosts, apparitions, witches, demoniacal
possessions, and ridiculous prodigies. A girl of an
active and susceptible imagination hears a story of
demoniacal possessions ; her nerves become shaken,
she falls into convulsions, and believes herself pos-
sessed by a demon or devil. I actually saw one
young woman die in consequence of the shock her
frame received from these abominable histories.

CONSTANTINE.

SECTION I.

The Age of Constantine.
Among the ages which followed the Augustan,
that of Constantine merits particular distinction.
It is immortalized by the great changes which it
ushered into the world. It commenced, it is true,
with bringing back barbarism. Not merely were
there no Ciceros, Horaces, and Virgils, any longer
to be found, but there was not even a Lucan or
a Seneca ; there was not even a philosophic and ac^
curate historian. Nothing was to be seen but equiv-
ocal satires or mere random panegyrics.

Dictionary. 247

It was at that time that the Christians began to
write history, but they took not Titus Livy, or
Thucydides as their models. The followers of the
ancient religion wrote with no greater eloquence
or truth. The two parties, in a state of mutual ex-
asperation, did not very scrupulously investigate
the charges which they heaped upon their adver-
saries ; and hence it arises that the same man is
sometimes represented as a god and sometimes as
a monster.

The decline of everything, in the commonest
mechanical arts, as well as in eloquence and virtue,
took place after the reign of Marcus Aurelius. He
was the last emperor of the sect of stoics, who ele-
vated man above himself by rendering him severe
to himself only, and compassionate to others. Af-
ter the death of this emperor, who was a genuine
philosopher, there was nothing but tyranny and con-
fusion. The soldiers frequently disposed of the em-
pire. The senate had fallen into such complete con-
tempt that, in the time of Gallienus, an express law
was enacted to prevent senators from engaging in
war. Thirty heads of parties were seen, at one time,
assuming the title of emperor in thirty provinces
of the empire. The barbarians already poured in,
on every side, in the middle of the third century,
on this rent and lacerated empire. Yet it was held
together by the mere military discipline on which
it had been founded.

During all these calamities, Christianity gradu-

248 Philosophical

ally established itself, particularly in Egypt, Syria,
and on the coasts of Asia Minor. The Roman Em-
pire admitted all sorts of religions, as well as all
sects of philosophy. The worship of Osiris was per-
mitted, and even the Jews were left in the enjoyment
of considerable privileges, notwithstanding their re-
volts. But the people in the provinces frequently
rose up against the Christians. The magistrates
persecuted them, and edicts were frequently ob-
tained against them from the emperors. There is
no ground for astonishment at the general hatred
in which Christians were at first held, while so many
other religions were tolerated. The reason was that
neither Egyptians nor Jews, nor the worshippers of
the goddess of Syria and so many other foreign de-
ities, ever declared open hostility to the gods of the
empire. They did not array themselves against the
established religion ; but one of the most imperious
duties of the Christians was to exterminate the pre-
vailing worship. The priests of the gods raised a
clamor on perceiving the diminution of sacrifices
and offerings ; and the people, ever fanatical and
impetuous, were stirred up against the Christians,
while in the meantime many emperors protected
them. Adrian expressly forbade the persecution of
them. Marcus Aurelius commanded that they
should not be prosecuted on account of religion.
Caracalla, Heliogabalus, Alexander, Philip, and Gal-
lienus left them entire liberty. They had, in the
third century, public churches numerously attended

Dictionary. 249

and very opulent ; and so great was the liberty they
enjoyed that, in the course of that century, they held
sixteen councils. The road to dignities was shut
up against the first Christians, who were nearly all
of obscure condition, and they turned their attention
to commerce, and some of them amassed great af-
fluence. This is the resource of all societies that
cannot have access to offices in the state. Such has
been the case with the Calvinists in France, all the
Nonconformists in England, the Catholics in Hol-
land, the Armenians in Persia, the Banians in India,
and the Jews all over the world. However, at last
the toleration was so great, and the administration
of the government so mild, that the Christians
gained access to all the honors and dignities of the
state. They did not sacrifice to the gods of the em-
pire ; they were not molested, whether they attended
or avoided the temples ; there was at Rome the
most perfect liberty with respect to the exercises of
their religion ; none were compelled to engage in
them. The Christians, therefore, enjoyed the same
liberty as others. It is so true that they attained to
honors, that Diocletian and Galerius deprived no
fewer than three hundred and three of them of those
honors, in the persecution of which we shall have
to speak.

It is our duty to adore Providence in all its dis-
pensations ; but I confine myself to political history.
Manes, under the reign of Probus, about the year
278, formed a new religion in Alexandria. The

250 Philosophical

principles of this sect were made up of some ancient
doctrines of the Persians and certain tenets of Chris-
tianity. Probus, and his successor, Carus, left
]\Ianes and the Christians in the enjoyment of peace.
Numerien permitted them entire liberty. Diocletian
protected the Christians, and tolerated the Mani-
chseans, during twelve years ; but in 296 he issued
an edict against the Manichseans, and proscribed
them as enemies to the empire and adherents of the
Persians. The Christians were not comprehended
in the edict ; they continued in tranquillity under
Diocletian, and made open profession of their re-
ligion throughout the whole empire until the latter
years of that prince's reign.

To complete the sketch, it is necessary to describe
of what at that period the Roman Empire consisted.
Notwithstanding internal and foreign shocks, not-
withstanding the incursions of barbarians, it com-
prised all the possessions of the grand seignor at
the present day, except Arabia ; all that the house
of Austria possesses in Germany, and all the Ger-
man provinces as far as the Elbe ; Italy, France,
Spain, England, and half of Scotland ; all Africa
as far as the desert of Sahara, and even the Canary
Isles. All these nations were retained under the
yoke by bodies of military less considerable than
would be raised by Germany and France at the pres-
ent day, when in actual war.

This immense power became more confirmed and
enlarged, from Cssar down to Theodosius, as weV

Dictionary. 251

by laws, police, and real services conferred on the
people, as by arms and terror. It is even yet a mat-
ter of astonishment that none of these conquered
nations have been able, since they became their own
rulers, to form such highways, and to erect such
amphitheatres and public baths, as their conquerors
bestowed upon them. Countries which are at pres-
ent nearly barbarous and deserted, were then pop-
ulous and well governed. Such were Epirus, Mace-
donia, Thessaly, Illyria, Pannonia, with Asia Minor,
and the coasts of Africa ; but it must also be ad-
mitted that Germany, France, and Britain were then
very different from what they are now. These
three states are those which have most benefited by
governing themselves ; yet it required nearly twelve
centuries to place those kingdoms in the flourishing
situation in which we now behold them ; but it must
be acknowledged that all the rest have lost much by
passing under different laws. The ruins of Asia
Minor and Greece, the depopulation of Egy^pt and
the barbarism of Africa, are still existing testimo-
nials of Roman greatness. The great number of
flourishing cities which covered those countries had
now become miserable villages, and the soil had be-
come barren under the hands of a brutalized pop-
ulation.

SECTION II,

Character of Constantine.
I will not here speak of the confusion which
agitated the empire after the abdication of Diocle-

252 Philosophical

tian. There were after his death six emperors at
once. Constantine triumphed over them all, changed
the religion of the empire, and was not merely the
author of that great revolution, but of all those
which have since occurred in the west. What was
his character? Ask it of Julian, of Zosimus, of
Sozomen, and of Victor ; they will tell you that he
acted at first like a great prince, afterwards as a pub-
lic robber, and that the last stage of his life was that
of a sensualist, a trifler, and a prodigal. They will
describe him as ever ambitious, cruel, and san-
guinary. Ask his character of Eusebius, of Greg-
ory Nazianzen, and Lactantius ; they will inform
you that he was a perfect man. Between these two
extremes authentic facts alone can enable us to ob-
tain the truth. He had a father-in-law, whom he
impelled to hang himself ; he had a brother-in-law.
whom he ordered to be strangled ; he had a nephew
twelve or thirteen years old, whose throat he ordered
to be cut ; he had an eldest son, whom he beheaded ;
he had a wife, whom he ordered to be suffocated in
a bath. An old Gallic author said that "he loved to
make a clear house."

If you add to all these domestic acts that, being
on the banks of the Rhine in pursuit of some hordes
of Franks who resided in those parts, and having
taken their kings, who probably were of the family
of our Pharamond or Clodion le CheveJii, he ex-
posed them to beasts for his diversion ; you may in-
fer from all this, without any apprehension of being

Dictionary. 253

deceived, that he was not the most courteous and
accommodating personage in the world.

Let us examine, in this place, the principal events
of his reign. His father, Constantius Chlorus, was
in the heart of Britain, where he had for some
months assumed the title of emperor. Constantine
was at Nicomedia, with the emperor Galerius. He
asked permission of the emperor to go to see his
father, who was ill. Galerius granted it, without
difficulty. Constantine set off with government re-
lays, called veredarii. It might be said to be as
dangerous to be a post-horse as to be a member of
the family of Constantine, for he ordered all the
horses to be hamstrung after he had done with them,
fearful lest Galerius should revoke his permission
and order him to return to Nicomedia. He found
his father at the point of death, and caused himself
to be recognized emperor by the small number of
Roman troops at that time in Britain.

An election of a Roman emperor at York, by five
or six thousand men, was not likely to be considered
legitimate at Rome. It wanted at least the formula
of "Senaius populusque Romaniis." The senate,
the people, and the praetorian bands unanimously
elected Maxentius, son of the Csesar Maximilian
Hercules, who had been already Caesar, and brother
of that Fausta whom Constantine had married,
and whom he afterwards caused to be suffocated.
This Maxentius is called a tyrant and usurper by
our historians, who are uniformly the partisans of

254 Philosophical

the successful. He was the protector of the pagan
religion against Constantine, who already began to
declare himself for the Christians. Being both pa-
gan and vanquished, he could not but be an abom-
inable man.

Eusebius tells us that Constantine, when going
to Rome to fight Maxentius, saw in the clouds, as
well as his whole army, the grand imperial standard
called the labanim, surmounted with a Latin P. or
a large Greek R. with a cross in "saltier," and cer-
tain Greek words which signified, "By this sign thou
shalt conquer." Some authors pretend that this sign
appeared to him at Besancon, others at Cologne,
some at Trier and others at Troyes. It is strange
that in all these places heaven should have expressed
its meaning in Greek. It would have appeared
more natural to the weak understandings of men
that this sign should have appeared in Italy on the
day of the battle ; but then it would have been neces-
sary that the inscription should have been in Latin.
A learned antiquary, of the name of Loisel, has re-
futed this narrative ; but he was treated as a repro-
bate.

It might, however, be worth while to reflect that
this war was not a war of religion, that Constantine
was not a saint, that he died suspected of being an
Arian, after having persecuted the orthodox ; and,
therefore, that there is no very obvious motive to
support this prodigy.

After this victory, the senate hastened to pay its

Dictionary. 255

devotion to the conqueror, and to express its detesta-
tion of the memory of the conquered. The trium-
phal arch of Marcus Aurehus was speedily dis-
mantled to adorn that of Constantine. A statue of
gold was prepared for him, an honor which had
never been shown except to the gods. He received
it, notwithstanding the laharum, and received fur-
ther the title of Pontifex Maximus, which he re-
tained all his life. His first care, according to Zos-
imus, was to exterminate the whole race of the
tyrant, and his principal friends ; after which he as-
sisted very graciously at the public spectacles and
games.

The aged Diocletian was at that time dying in
his retreat at Salonica. Constantine should not have
been in such haste to pull down his statues at Rome ;
he should have recollected that the forgotten em-
peror had been the benefactor of his father, and
that he was indebted to him for the empire. Al-
though he had conquered Maxentius, Licinius, his
brother-in-law, an Augustus like himself, was still
to be got rid of; and Licinius was equally anxious
to be rid of Constantine, if he had it in his power.
However, their quarrels not having yet broken out
in hostility, they issued conjointly at Milan, in 313,
the celebrated edict of liberty of conscience. "We
grant," they say, "to all the liberty of following
whatever religion they please, in order to draw down
the blessing of heaven upon us and our subjects;
we declare that we have granted to the Christians

^56 Philosophical

the free and full power of exercising their religion ;
it being understood that all others shall enjoy the
same liberty, in order to preserve the tranquillity
of our government." A volume might be written on
such an edict, but I shall merely venture a few lines,

Constantine was not as yet a Christian ; nor, in-
deed, was his colleague, Licinius, one. There was
still an emperor or a tyrant to be exterminated ; this
was a determined pagan, of the name of Maximin.
Licinius fought with him before he fought with
Constantine. Heaven was still more favorable to
him than to Constantine himself ; for the latter had
only the apparition of a standard, but Licinius that
of an angel. This angel taught him a prayer, by
means of which he would be sure to vanquish the
barbarian Maximin. Licinius wrote it down, or-
dered it to be recited three times by his army, and
obtained a complete victory. If this same Licinius,
the brother-in-law of Constantine, had reigned hap-
pily, we should have heard of nothing but his an'
gel ; but Constantine having had him hanged, and
his son slain, and become absolute master of every-
thing, nothing has been talked of but Constantine's
laharum.

It is believed that he put to death his eldest son
Crispus, and his own wife Fausta, the same year
that he convened the Council of Nice. Zosimus and
Sozomen pretend that, the heathen priests having
told him that there were no expiations for such
great crimes, he then made open profession of Chris-

Dictionary 257

tianity, and demolished many temples in the East.
It is not very probable that the pagan pontiffs
should have omitted so fine an opportunity of get-
ting back their grand pontiff, who had abandoned
them. However, it is by no means impossible that
there might be among them some severe men ;
scrupulous and austere persons are to be found
everywhere. What is more extraordinary is, that
Constantine, after becoming a Christian, performed
no penance for his parricide. It was at Rome that he
exercised that cruelty, and from that time residence
at Rome became hateful to him. He quitted it for-
ever, and went to lay the foundations of Constanti-
nople. How dared he say, in one of his rescripts,
that he transferred the seat of empire to Constanti-
nople, "by the command of God himself?" Is it
anything but an impudent mockery of God and
man? If God had given him any command, would
it not have been — not to assassinate his wife and
son?

Diocletian had already furnished an example of
transferring the empire towards Asia. The pride,
the despotism, and the general manners of the Asiat-
ics disgusted the Romans, depraved and slavish as
they had become. The emperors had not ventured
to require, at Rome, that their feet should be kissed,
nor to introduce a crowd of eunuchs into their pal-
aces. Diocletian began in Nicomedia, and Constan-
tine completed the system at Constantinople, to as-
similate the Roman court to the courts of the Per-

Vol. 7—17

258 Philosophical

sians. The city of Rome from that time languished
in decay, and the old Roman spirit declined with her.
Constantine thus efifected the greatest injury to the
empire that was in his power.

Of all the emperors, he was unquestionably the
most absolute. Augustus had left an image of lib-
erty ; Tiberius, and even Nero, had humored the
senate and people of Rome ; Constantine humored
none. He had at first established his power in Rome
by disbanding those haughty praetorians who con-
sidered themselves the masters of the emperors. He
made an entire separation between the gown and
the sword. The depositories of the laws, kept down
under military power, were only jurists in chains.
The provinces of the empire were governed upon a
new sj'-stem.

The grand object of Constantine was to be mas-
ter in everything ; he was so in the Church, as well
as in the State. We behold him convoking and open-
ing the Council of Nice ; advancing into the midst
of the assembled fathers, covered over with jewels,
and with the diadem on his head, seating himself in
the highest place, and banishing unconcernedly
sometimes Arius and sometimes Athanasius. He
put himself at the head of Christianity without being
a Christian ; for at that time baptism was essential
to any person's becoming one; he was only a cat-
echumen. The usage of waiting for the approach
of death before immersing in the water of regenera-
tion, was beginning to decline with respect to pri-

Dictionary. 259

vate individuals. If Constantine, by delaying his
baptism till near the point of death, entertained the
notion that he might commit every act with impu-
nity in the hope of a complete expiation, it was un-
fortunate for the human race that such an opinion
should have ever suggested itself to the mind of a
man in possession of uncontrolled power.

CONTRADICTIONS.

SECTION I.

The more we see of the world, the more we see
it abounding in contradictions and inconsistencies.
To begin with the Grand Turk : he orders every
head that he dislikes struck off, and can very rarely
preserve his own. If we pass from the Grand Turk
to the Holy Father, he confirms the election of
emperors, and has kings among his vassals ; but he
is not so powerful as a duke of Savoy. He expe-
dites orders for America and Africa, yet could not
withhold the slightest of its privileges from the re-
public of Lucca. The emperor is the king of the
Romans ; but the right of their king consists in
holding the pope's stirrup, and handing the water
to him at mass. The English serve their monarch
upon their knees, but they depose, imprison, and
behead him.

Men who make a vow of poverty, gain in con-
sequence an income of about two hundred thousand
crowns ; and, in virtue of their vow of humility, they

26o Philosophical

become absolute sovereigns. The plurality of bene-
fices with care of souls is severely denounced at
Rome, yet every day it despatches a bull to some
German, to enable him to hold five or six bishoprics
at once. The reason, we are told, is that the German
bishops have no cure of souls. The chancellor of
France is the first person in the State, but he cannof
sit at table with the king, at least he could not till
lately, although a colonel, who is scarcely perhaps
a gentleman — gentil-homme — may enjoy that dis-
tinction. The wife of a provincial governor is a
queen in the province, but merely a citizen's wife at
court.

Persons convicted of the crime of nonconformity
are publicly roasted, and in all our colleges the sec-
ond eclogue of Virgil is explained with great grav-
ity, including Corydon's declarations of love to the
beautiful Alexis ; and it is remarked to the boys
that, although Alexis be fair and Amyntas brown,
yet Amyntas may still deserve the preference.

If an unfortunate philosopher, without intending
the least harm, takes it into his head that the earth
turns round, or to imagine that light comes from
the sun, or to suppose that matter may contain some
other properties than those with which we are ac-
quainted, he is cried down as a blasphemer, and a
disturber of the public peace; and yet there are
translations in usum Delphini of the "Tusculan
Questions" of Cicero, and of Lucretius, which are
two complete courses of irreligion.

Dictionary. 261

Courts of justice no longer believe that persons
are possessed by devils, and laugh at sorcerers ; but
Gauffredi and Grandier were burned for sorcery;
and one-half of a parliament wanted to sentence to
the stake a monk accused of having bewitched a
girl of eighteen by breathing upon her.

The skeptical philosopher Bayle was persecuted,
even in Holland. La Motte le Vayer, more of a
skeptic, but less of a philosopher, was preceptor of
the king Louis XIV., and of the king's brother.
Gourville was hanged in effigy at Paris, while
French minister in Germany.

The celebrated atheist Spinoza lived and died in
peace. Vanini, who had merely written against
Aristotle, was burned as an atheist ; he has, in con-
sequence, obtained the honor of making one article
in the histories of the learned, and in all the diction-
aries, which, in fact, constitute immense repositories
of lies, mixed up with a very small portion of truth.
Open these books, and you will there find not merely
that Vanini publicly taught atheism in his writings,
but that twelve professors of his sect went with
him to Naples with the intention of everywhere
making proselytes. Afterwards, open the books of
Vanini, and you will be astonished to find in them
nothing but proofs of the existence of God. Read
the following passage, taken from his "Amphi-
theatrum," a work equally unknown and con-
demned : "God is His own original and boundary,
without end and without beginning, requiring

l62 Philosophical

neither the one nor the other, and father of all be-
ginning and end ; He ever exists, but not in time ;
to Him there has been no past, and will be no future ;
He reigns everywhere, without being in any place ;
immovable without rest, rapid without motion ; He
is all, and out of all ; He is in all, without being
enclosed ; out of everything, without being excluded
from anything; good, but without quality; entire,
but without parts ; immutable, while changing the
whole universe ; His will is His power ; absolute,
there is nothing of Him of what is merely possible ;
all in Him is real ; He is the first, the middle, and
the last ; finally, although constituting all, He is
above all beings, out of them, within them, beyond
them, before them, and after them." It was after
such a profession of faith that Vanini was declared
an atheist. Upon what grounds was he condemned ?
Simply upon the deposition of a man named Fran-
con. In vain did his books depose in favor of him ;
a single enemy deprived him of life, and stigmatized
his name throughout Europe.

The little book called "Cymbaluni Mimdi," which
is merely a cold imitation of Lucian, and which has
not the slightest or remotest reference to Chris-
tianity, was condemned to be burned. But Rabe-
lais was printed "cum privilegio" ; and a free
course was allowed to the ''Turkish Spy," and
even to the "Persian Letters" ; that volatile, in-
genious, and daring work, in which there is one
whole letter in favor of suicide ; another in which

Dictionary. 263

we find these words : "If we suppose such a thing
as rehgion ;" a third, in which it is expressly said
that "the bishops have no other functions than dis-
pensing with the observance of the laws" ; and,
finally, another in which the pope is said to be a
magician, who makes people believe that three are
one, and that the bread we eat is not bread, etc.

The Abbe St. Pierre, a man who could frequently
deceive himself, but who never wrote without a
view to the public good, and whose works were
called by Cardinal Dubois, "The dreams of an
honest citizen" ; the Abbe St. Pierre, I say, was
unanimously expelled from the French Academy
for having, in some political work, preferred the
establishment of councils under the regency to that
of secretaries of state under Louis XIV. ; and for
saying that towards the close of that glorious reign
the finances were wretchedly conducted. The
author of the "Persian Letters" has not mentioned
Louis XIV. in his book, except to say that he was
a magician who could make his subjects believe that
paper was money ; that he liked no government
but that of Turkey; that he preferred a man who
handed him a napkin to a man who gained him
battles ; that he had conferred a pension on a man
who had run away two leagues, and a government
upon another who had run away four ; that he was
overwhelmed with poverty, although it is said, in
the same letter, that his finances are inexhaustible.
Observe, then, I repeat, all that this waiter, in the

264 Philosophical

only work then known to be his, has said of Louis
XIV., the patron of the French Academy. We may
add, too, as a climax of contradiction, that that
society admitted him as a member for having
turned them into ridicule ; for, of all the books by
which the public have been entertained at the ex-
pense of the society, there is not one in which it
has been treated more disrespectfully than in the
"Persian Letters." See that letter wherein he says,
"The members of this body haA'e no other business
than incessantly to chatter ; panegyric comes and
takes its place as it were spontaneously in their
eternal gabble," etc. After having thus treated this
societ}', they praise him, on his introduction, for his
skill in drawing likenesses.

Were I disposed to continue the research into
the contraries to be found in the empire of letters, I
might give the history of every man of learning or
wit ; just in the same manner as. if I were inclined
to detail the contradictions existing in society, it
would be necessan,^ to write the history of man-
kind. An Asiatic, who should travel to Europe,
might well consider us as pagans ; our week days
bear the names of Mars, Mercur}% Jupiter, and
Venus ; and the nuptials of Cupid and Psyche are
painted in the pope's palace ; but, particularly, were
this Asiatic to attend at our opera, he would not
hesitate in concluding it to be a festival in honor of
the pagan deities. If he endeavored to gain more
precise information resperting our manners, he

Dictionary. 265

would experience still greater astonishment; he
would see, in Spain, that a severe law forbids any
foreigner from having the slightest share, however
indirect, in the commerce of America; and that,
notwithstanding, foreigners — through the medium
of Spanish factors — carry on a commerce with it
to the extent of fifteen millions a year. Thus Spain
can be enriched only by the violation of a law always
subsisting and always evaded. He would see that
in another country the government establishes and
encourages a company for trading to the Indies,
while the divines of that country have declared the
receiving of dividends upon the shares offensive in
the sight of God. He would see that the offices
of a judge, a commander, a privy counsellor, are
purchased ; he would be unable to comprehend why
it is stated in the patents appointing to such offices
that they have been bestowed gratis and without
purchase, while the receipt for the sum given for
them is attached to the commission itself. Would
not our Asiatic be surprised, also, to see comedians
salaried by sovereigns, and excommunicated by
priests? He would inquire why a plebeian lieuten-
ant-general, who had won battles, should be subject
to the taillej like a peasant ; and a sheriff should be
considered, at least in reference to this point, as
noble as a Montmorency; why, while regular
dramas are forbidden to be performed during a
week sacred to edification, merry-andrews are per-
mitted to nifend even the least delicate ears with

0.66 Philosophical

their ribaldry. He would almost everywhere see
our usages in opposition to our laws ; and were we
to travel to Asia, we should discover the existence
of exactly similar contradictions.

Men are everywhere inconsistent alike. They
have made laws by piecemeal, as breaches are re-
paired in walls. Here the eldest sons take every-
thing they are able from the younger ones ; there
all share equally. Sometimes the Church has or-
dered duels, sometimes it has anathematized them.
The partisans and the opponents of Aristotle have
been both excommunicated in their turn ; as have
also the wearers of long hair and short hair. There
has been but one perfect law in the world, and that
was designed to regulate a species of folly — that is
to say, play. The laws of play are the only ones
which admit of no exception, relaxation, change or
tyranny. A man who has been a lackey, if he plays
at lansquenet with kings, is paid with perfect readi-
ness when he wins. In other cases the law is every-
where a sword, with which the strongest party cuts
in pieces the weakest.

In the meantime the world goes on as if every-
thing was wisely arranged ; irregularity is part of
our nature. Our social world is like the natural
globe, rude and unshapely, but possessing a princi-
ple of preservation ; it would be folly to wish that
mountains, seas, and rivers were traced in regular
and finished forms ; it would be a still greater folly
to expect from man the perfection of wisdom ; if

Dictionary. 267

would be as weak as to wish to attach wings to
dogs or horns to eagles.

Examples Taken from History, from Sacred Scrip-
ture, from Numerous Authors, etc.

We have just been instancing a variety of con-
tradictions in our usages, our manners, and our laws,
but we have not said enough. Everything, particu-
larly in Europe, has been made in the same manner
as Harlequin's habit. His master, when he wanted
to have a dress made for him, had not a piece of
cloth, and therefore took old cuttings of all sorts of
colors. Harlequin was laughed at, but then he was
clothed.

The Germans are a brave nation, whom neither
the Germanicuses nor the Trajans were ever able
completely to subjugate. All the German nations
that dwelt beyond the Elbe were invincible, although
badly armed ; and from these gloomy climes issued
forth, in part, the avengers of the world. Germany,
far from constituting the Roman Empire, has been
instrumental in destroying it.

This empire had found a refuge at Constanti-
nople, when a German — an Austrasian — went from
Aix-la-Chapelle to Rome, to strip the Greek Caesars
of the remainder of their possessions in Italy. He
assumed the name of Caesar Imperator; but neither
he nor his successors even ventured to reside at
Rome. That capital could not either boast or regret
that from the time of Augustulus, the final excre-

268 Philosophical

ment of the genuine Roman Empire, a single Csesar
had lived and been buried within its walls.

It is difficult to suppose the empire can be ''holy,"
as it professes three different religions, of which two
are declared impious, abominable, damnable, and
damned, by the court of Rome, which the whole im-
perial court considers in such cases to be supreme.
It is certainly not Roman, since the emperor has
not any residence at Rome.

In England people wait upon the king kneeling.
The constant maxim is, ''The king can do no
wrong" ; his ministers only can deserve blame ; he
is as infallible in his actions as the pope in his
judgments. Such is the fundamental, the "Salic"
law of England. Yet the parliament sat in judg-
ment on its king, Ec%ard II., who had been van-
quished and taken prisoner by his wife ; he was de-
clared to have done all possible wrong, and deprived
of all his rights to the crown. Sir William Tressel
went to him in prison, and made him the following
complimentary address :

"I, William Tressel, as proxy for the parliament
and the whole English nation, revoke the homage
formerly paid you ; I put you to defiance, and de-
prive you of royal power, and from this time forth
we will hold no allegiance to you."

The parliament tried and sentenced King Richard
XL, grandson of the great Edward III. Thirty-one
articles of accusation were brought against him,
among which two are not a little singular — that he

Dictionary. 269

had borrowed money and not repaid it; and that
he had asserted before witnesses that he was master
of the Hves and properties of his subjects.

The parliament deposed Henry VL, who, un-
doubtedly, was exceedingly wrong, but in a some-
what different sense : he was imbecile.

The parliament declared Edward IV. a traitor,
and confiscated his goods ; and afterwards, on his
being successful, restored him. As for Richard III.,
he undoubtedly committed more wrong than all the
others ; he was a Nero, but a bold one ; and the
parliament did not declare his wrongs till after he
was slain.

The House of Commons imputed to Charles I.
more wrongs than he was justly chargeable with,
and brought him to the scaffold. Parliament voted
that James II. had committed very gross and fla-
grant wrongs, and particularly that of withdrawing
himself from the kingdom. It declared the throne
vacant ; that is, it deposed him. In the present day,
Junius writes to the king of England that he is
faulty in being good and wise. If these are not
contradictions, I know not where to find them.

Contradictions in Certain Rites.

Next to those great political contradictions, which
are subdivided into innumerable little ones, nothing
more forcibly attracts our notice than the contradic-
tion apparent in reference to some of our rites. We
hate Judaism. No longer than fifteen years ago

I'-jO Philosophical

Jews were still burned at the stake. We consider
them as murderers of our God, and yet we assemble
every Sunday to chant Jewish psalms and canticles ;
it is only owing to our ignorance of the language
that we do not recite them in Hebrew. But the
fifteen first bishops, the priests, deacons and congre-
gation of Jerusalem, which was the cradle of the
Christian religion, always recited the Jewish psalms
in the Jewish idiom of the Syriac language ; and,
till the time of the Caliph Omar, almost all the Chris-
tians, from Tyre to Aleppo, prayed in that Jewish
idiom. At present any one reciting the psalms as
they were originally composed, or chanting them in
the Jewish language, would be suspected of being a
circumcised Jew, and might be burned as one; at
least, not more than twenty years since, that would
have been his fate, although Jesus Christ was cir-
cumcised, as were also his apostles and disciples. I
set aside the mysterious doctrines of our holy re-
ligion— everything that is an object of faith — every-
thing that we ought to approach only with awe and
submission. I look only at externals ; I refer simply
to observances ; I ask if anything was ever more
contradictory ?

Contradictions in Things and Men.

If any literary society is inclined to undertake a
history of contradictions, I will subscribe for twenty
folio volumes. The world displays nothing but con-
tradictions. What would be necessary to put an

Dictionary, 271

end to them ? To assemble the states-general of the
human race. But, according to the nature and con-
stitution of mankind,, it would be a new contradic-
tion were they to agree. Bring together all the
rabbits in the world, and there would not be two
different minds among them.

I know only two descriptions of immovable
beings in the world — geometricians and brute ani-
mals ; they are guided by two invariable rules —
demonstration and instinct. Some disputes, indeed,
have occurred between geometricians, but brutes
have never varied.

The contrasts, the lights and shades, in which
men are represented in history, are not contradic-
tions ; they are faithful portraits of human nature.
Every day both censure and admiration are applied
to Alexander, the murderer of Clitus, but the
avenger of Greece ; the conqueror of Persia, and the
founder of Alexandria ; to Caesar, the debauchee,
who robbed the public treasury of Rome to enslave
his country, but whose clemency was equal to his
valor, and whose genius was equal to his courage ;
to Mahomet, the impostor and robber, but the only
legislator of religion that ever displayed courage, or
founded a great empire ; to the enthusiast, Crom-
well, at once knave and fanatic, the murderer of his
king by form of law, but equally profound as a
politician, and valiant as a warrior. A thousand
contrasts frequently present themselves at once to
the mind, and these contrasts are in nature. They

2'j'l Philosophical

are not more astonishing than a fine day followed
by a tempest.

Apparent Contradictions in Books.

We must accurately distinguish in books, and
particularly the sacred ones, between apparent and
real contradictions. It is said in the Pentateuch
that Moses was the meekest of men, and that he
ordered twenty-three thousand Hebrews to be slain
who had worshipped the golden calf, and twenty-
four thousand more, who had, like himself, married
Midianitish women. But sagacious commentators
have adduced solid proofs that Moses possessed a
most amiable temper, and that he only executed the
vengeance of God in massacring these forty-seven
thousand Israelites, as just stated.

Some daring critics have pretended to perceive a
contradiction in the narrative in which it is said that
Moses changed all the waters of Egypt into blood,
and that the magicians of Pharaoh afterwards per-
formed the same prodigy — the Book of Exodus
leaving no interval of time between the miracle of
Moses and the magical operation of the enchanters.

It appears, at first view, impossible that these
magicians should change to blood that which was
already made such ; but the difficulty may be re-
moved by supposing that Moses had allowed the
waters to resume their original nature, in order to
give Pharaoh time for reflection. This supposition
is the more plausible, inasmuch as, if not expressly
favored by the text, the latter is not contrary to it.

Dictionary. 273

The same skeptics inquire how, after all the
horses were destroyed by hail, in the sixth plague,
Pharaoh was able to pursue the Jewish nation with
cavalry. But this contradiction is not even an ap-
parent one, since the hail which killed all the horses
that were out in the fields, could not fall on those
which were in the stables.

One of the greatest contradictions which has been
supposed to be found in the history of the kings is
the utter scarcity of offensive and defensive arms
among the Jews at the time of the accession of Saul,
compared with the army of three hundred and thirty
thousand men, whom he conducted against the
Ammonites who were besieging Jabesh Gilead.

It is a fact related that then, and even after that
battle, there was not a lance, not even a single sword,
among the whole Hebrew people; that the Philis-
tines prevented the Hebrews from manufacturing
swords and lances ; that the Hebrews were obliged
to have recourse to the Philistines for sharpening
and repairing their plowshares, mattocks, axes, and
pruning-hooks.

This acknowledgment seems to prove that the
Hebrews consisted of only a very small number, and
that the Philistines were a powerful and victorious
nation, who kept the Israelites under the yoke, and
treated them as slaves ; in short, that it was im-
possible for Saul to collect three hundred and thirty
thousand fighting men, etc.

The reverend Father Calmet says it is probable
Vol. 7—18

274 Philosophical

"that there is a little exaggeration in what is stated
about Saul and Jonathan" ; but that learned man
forgets that the other commentators ascribe the first
victories of Saul and Jonathan to one of those de-
cided miracles which God so often condescended to
perform in favor of his miserable people. Jonathan,
with his armor-bearer onl}^ at the very beginning,
slew twenty of the enemy ; and the Philistines, ut-
terly confounded, turned their arms against each
other. The author of the Book of Kings positively
declares that it was a miracle of God : "Accidit quasi
iniraciihmi a Deo." There is, therefore, no con-
tradiction.

The enemies of the Christian religion, the Cel-
suses, the Porphyrys, and the Julians, have ex-
hausted the sagacity of their understandings upon
this subject. The Jewish writers have availed them-
selves of all the advantages they derived from their
superior knowledge of the Hebrew language to ex-
plain these apparent contradictions. They have
been followed even by Christians, such as Lord Her-
bert, Wollaston, Tindal, Toland, Collins, Shaftes-
bury, Woolston, Gordon, Bolingbroke, and many
others of different nations. Freret, perpetual sec-
retary of the Academy of Belles Lettres in France,
the learned Le Clerc himself, and Simon of the Ora-
tory thought they perceived some contradictions
which might be ascribed to the copyists. An im-
mense number of other critics have endeavored to

Dictionary. 275

remove or correct contradictions which appeared to
them inexplicable.

We read in a dangerous little book, composed
with much art: "St. Matthew and St. Luke give
each a genealogy of Christ different from the other ;
and lest it should be thought that the differences are
only slight, such as might be imputed to neglect or
oversight, the contrary may easily be shown by read-
ing the first chapter of Matthew and the third of
Luke. We shall then see that fifteen generations
more are enumerated in the one than in the other;
that, from David, they completely separate; that
they join again at Salathiel ; but that, after his son,
they again separate, and do not reunite again but in
Joseph.

"In the same genealogy, St. Alatthew again falls
into a manifest contradiction, for he says that Uzziah
was the father of Jotham ; and in the "Paralipo-
mcna," book i, chap, iii., v. 11, 12, we find three
generations between them — Joas, Amazias, and
Azarias — of whom Luke, as well as Matthew, make
no mention. Further, this genealogy has nothing to
do with that of Jesus, since, according to our creed,
Joseph had had no intercourse with Mary."

In order to reply to this objection, urged from
the time of Origen, and renewed from age to age,
we must read Julius Africanus. See the two gene-
alogies reconciled in the following table, as we find
it in the repository of ecclesiastical writers :

276

Philosophical

Solomon and his

descendants, enu-
merated by Saint
Matthew.

Mathan, her first
husband.

Jacob, son of Ma-
than, the first hus-
band.

Joseph, natural
son of Jacob.

DAVID.

ESTHER.

The wife of these
two persons suc-
cessively, married
first to Heli, by
whom she had no
child, and after-
wards to Jacob,
his brother.

Nathan and his
descendants, enu-
merated by Saint
Luke.

Melchi, or rather
Mathat, her sec-
ond husband.

Heli.

Legitimate son of
Heli.

There is another method to reconcile the two
genealogies, by St. Epiphanius. According to him,
Jacob Panther, descended from Solomon, is the
father of Joseph and of Cleophas. Joseph has six
children by his first wife — James, Joshua, Simeon,
Jude, Mary, and Salome. He then espouses the
Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the daughter
of Joachim and Anne.

There are many other methods of explaining
these two genealogies. See the "Dissertation" of
Father Calmet, in which he endeavors to reconcile
St. Matthew with St. Luke, on the genealogy of
Jesus Christ. The same learned skeptics, who make
it their business to compare dates, to explore books
and medals, to collate ancient authors, and to seek
for truth by human skill and study, and who lose
in their knowledge the simplicity of their faith, re-

Dictionary. 277

proach St. Luke with contradicting the other evan-
gelists, and in being mistaken in what he advances
on the subject of our Lord's birth. The author of
the "Analysis of the Christian Religion" thus
rashly expresses himself on the subject (p. 23) :

"St. Luke says that Cyrenius was the governor of
Syria, when Augustus ordered the numbering of all
the people of the empire. We will show how many
decided falsehoods are contained in these few words.
First, Tacitus and Suetonius, the most precise of
historians, say not a single word of the pretended
numbering of the whole empire, which certainly
would have been a very singular event, since there
never had been one under any emperor — at least, no
author mentions such a case. Secondly, Cyrenius
did not arrive in Syria till ten years after the time
fixed by St. Luke ; it was then governed by Quin-
tilius Varus, as Tertullian relates, and as is con-
firmed by medals,"

We contend that in fact there never was a num-
bering of the whole Roman empire, but only a cen-
sus of Roman citizens, according to usage ; although
it is possible that the copyists may have written
"numbering" for "census." With regard to Cyren-
ius, whom the copyists have made Cirinus, it is cer-
tain that he was not governor of Syria at the time of
the birth of Jesus Christ, the governor being Quin-
tilius Varus ; but it is very probable that Quintilius
might send into Judaea this same Cyrenius, who ten
years after succeeded him in the government of

278 Philosophical

Syria. We cannot dissemble, however, that this ex-
planation still leaves some difficulties.

In the first place, the census made under Au-
gustus does not correspond in time with the birth
of Jesus Christ. Secondly, the Jews were not com-
prised in that census. Joseph and his wife were
not Roman citizens. Mary, therefore, it is said,
being under no necessity, was not likely to go from
Nazareth, which is at the extremity of Judaea, within
a few miles of Mount Tabor, in the midst of the
desert, to lie in at Bethlehem, which is eighty miles
from Nazareth.

But it might easily happen that Cirinus, or Cyren-
ius, having been sent to Jerusalem by Quintilius
Varus to impose a poll-tax, Joseph and Mary were
summoned by the magistrate of Bethlehem to go and
pay the tax in the town of Bethlehem, the place of
their birth. In this there is nothing contradictory.
The critics may endeavor to weaken this solution
by representing that it was Herod only who im-
posed taxes ; that the Romans at that time levied
nothing on Judaea ; that Augustus left Herod com-
pletely his own master for the tribute which that
Idumean paid to the empire. But, in an emergency,
it is not impossible to make some arrangement with
a tributary prince, and send him an intendant to es-
tablish in concert with him the new tax.

We will not here say, like so many others, that
copyists have committed many errors, and that in

Dictionary. 279

the version we possess there are to be found more
than ten thousand ; we had rather say with the
doctors of the Church and the most enHghtened
persons, that the Gospels were given us only to
teach us to live holily, and not to criticise learnedly.
These pretended contradictions produced a dread-
ful impression on the much lamented John Meslier,
rector of Etrepigni and But in Champagne. This
truly virtuous and charitable, but at the same time
melancholy, man, being possessed of scarcely any
other books than the Bible and some of the fathers,
read them with a studiousness of attention that be-
came fatal to him. Although bound by the duties
of his office to inculcate docility upon his flock, he
was not sufficiently docile himself. He saw ap-
parent contradictions, and shut his eyes to the means
suggested for reconciling them. He imagined that
he perceived the most frightful contradictions be-
tween Jesus being born a Jew and afterwards being
recognized as God ; in regard to that God known
from the first as the son of Joseph the carpenter and
the brother of James, yet descended from an empy-
rean which does not exist, to destroy sin upon earth
that is still covered with crimes ; in regard to that
God, the son of a common artisan and a descendant
of David on the side of his father, who was not in
fact his father ; between the creator of all worlds,
and the descendant of the adulterous Bathsheba, the
prurient Ruth, the incestuous Tamar, the prosti-

2 8o Philosophical

tute of Jericho, the wife of Abraham, so suspiciously
attractive to a king of Eg}'pt, and again at the age
of ninety years to a king of Gerar.

Meslier expatiates with an impiety absohitely
monstrous on these pretended contradictions, as
they struck him, for which, however, he might easily
have found an explanation, had he possessed only a
small portion of docility. At length his gloom so
grew upon him in his solitude that he actually be-
came horror-stricken at that holy religion which it
was his duty to preach and love ; and, listening only
to his seduced and wandering reason, he abjured
Christianity by a will written in his own hand, of
which he left three copies behind him at his death,
which took place in 1732. The copy of this will has
been often printed, and exhibits, in truth, a most
cruel -stumbling-block. A clergyman, who at the
point of death, asks pardon of God and his parish-
ioners for having taught the doctrines of Christi-
anity; a charitable clergyman, who holds Chris-
tianity in execration because many who profess it
are depraved ; who is shocked at the pomp and pride
of Rome, and exasperated by the difficulties of the
sacred volume ; a clerg}^man who speaks of Chris-
tianity like Porphyry, Jamblichus, Epictetus, Marcus
Aurelius, and Julian ! And this just as he is to make
his appearance before God ! How fatal a case for
him, and for all who may be led astray by his ex-
ample !

In a similar manner the unfortunate preacher

Dictionary. 281

Antony, misled by the apparent contradictions which
he imagined he saw between the new and the old
law, between the cultivated olive and the wild olive,
wretchedly abandoned the Christian religion for the
Jewish; and, more courageous than John Meslier,
preferred death to recantation.

It is evident from the will of John Meslier that
the apparent contradictions of the gospel were the
principal cause of unsettling the mind of that un-
fortunate pastor, who was, in other respects, a man
of the strictest virtue, and whom it is impossible to
think of without compassion. Meslier is deeply im-
pressed by the two genealogies, which seem in direct
opposition ; he had not seen the method of reconcil-
ing them ; he feels agitated and provoked to see that
St. Matthew makes the father and mother of the
child travel into Egypt, after having received the
homage of the three eastern magi or kings, and while
old King Herod, under the apprehension of being
dethroned by an infant just born at Bethlehem,
causes the slaughter of all the infants in the country,
in order to prevent such a revolution. He is aston-
ished that neither St. Luke, nor St. Mark, nor St.
John make any mention of this massacre. He is con-
founded at observing that St. Luke makes Joseph,
and the blessed Virgin Mary, and Jesus our Saviour,
remain at Bethlehem, after which they withdraw to
Nazareth. He should have seen that the Holy
Father might at first go into Egypt, and some time
afterwards to Nazareth, which was their country.

282 Philosophical

If St. ]\'Iatthe\v alone makes mention of the three
magi, and of the star which g-uided them to Bethle-
hem from the remote climes of the East, and of the
massacre of the children ; if the other evangelists
take no notice of these events, they do not contradict
St. Matthew ; silence is not contradiction.

If the three first evangelists — St. Matthew, St.
Mark, and St. Luke — make Jesus Christ to have
lived but three months from his baptism in Galilee
till his crucifixion at Jerusalem ; and if St. John ex-
tends that time to three years and three months, it
is easy to approximate St. John to the other evan-
gelists, as he does not expressly state that Jesus
Christ preached in Galilee for three years and three
months, but only leaves it to be inferred from his
narrative. Should a man renounce his religion upon
simple inferences, upon points of controversy, upon
difficulties in chronology?

It is impossible, says Meslier, to harmonize St.
Mark and St. Luke ; since the first says that Jesus,
when he left the wilderness, went to Capernaum,
and the second that he went to Nazareth. St. John
says that Andrew was the first who became a fol-
lower of Jesus Christ ; the three other evangelists
say that it was Simon Peter.

He pretends, also, that they contradict each other
with respect to the day when Jesus celebrated the
Passover, the hour and place of His execution, the
time of His appearance and resurrection. He
is convinced that books which contradict each other

Dictionary. 283

cannot be inspired by the Holy Spirit; but it is not
an article of faith to believe that the Holy Spirit in-
spired every syllable ; it did not guide the hand of
the copyist ; it permitted the operation of secondary
causes ; it was sufficient that it condescended to re-
veal the principal mysteries, and that in the course
of time it instituted a church for explaining them.
All those contradictions, with which the gospels have
been so often and so bitterly reproached, are ex-
plained by sagacious commentators ; far from being
injurious, they mutually clear up each other ; they
present reciprocal helps in the concordances and
harmony of the four gospels.

And if there are many difficulties which we can-
not solve, mysteries which we cannot comprehend,
adventures which we cannot credit, prodigies w^hich
shock the weakness of the human understanding,
and contradictions which it is impossible to recon-
cile, it is in order to exercise our faith and to humil-
iate our reason.

Contradictions in Judgments Upon Works of
Literature or Art.

I have sometimes heard it said of a good judge
on these subjects, and of exquisite taste, that man
decides according to mere caprice. He yesterday
described Poussin as an admirable painter ; to-day
he represents him as an ordinary one. The fact is,
that Poussin has merited both praise and censure.

There is no contradiction in being enraptured by

284 Philosophical

the delicious scenes of the Horatii and Curiatii, of
the Cid, of Augustus and of Cinna, and afterwards
in seeing, with disgust and indignation, fifteen trage-
dies in succession, containing no interest, no beauty,
and not even written in French.

It is the author himself who is contradictory. It
is he who has the misfortune to dififer entirely from
himself. The critic would contradict himself, if he
equally applauded what is excellent and detestable.
He will admire in Homer the description of the
girdle of Venus ; the parting of Hector and An-
dromache ; the interview between Achilles and
Priam. But will he equally applaud those passages
which describe the gods as abusing and fighting with
one another; the uniformity in battles which decide
nothing; the brutal ferocity of the heroes, and th'e
avarice by which they are almost all actuated ; in
short, a poem which terminates with a truce of
eleven days, unquestionably exciting an expectation
of the continuation of the war and the taking of
Troy, which, however, are not related ?

A good critic will frequently pass from approba-
tion to censure, however excellent the work may be
which he is perusing.

CONTRAST.

Contrast, opposition of figures, situations, for-
tune, manners, etc. A modest shepherdess forms a
beautiful contrast in a painting with a haughty
princess. The part of the impostor and that of

Dictionary. 285

Aristes constitute a very admirable contrast in "Tar-
tuffe."

The little may contrast with the great in paint-
ing, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Opposi-
tion of colors contrasts ; but there are also colors
contrary to each other; that is, which produce an
ill effect because they shock the eye when brought
very near it.

"Contradictory" is a term to be used only in
logic. It is contradictory for anything to be and not
to be ; to be in many places at once ; to be of a cer-
tain number or size, and not to be so. An opinion,
a discourse, or a decree, we may call contradictory.
The different fortunes of Charles XII. have been
contrary, but not contradictory ; they form in his-
tory a beautiful contrast.

It is a striking contrast — and the two things are
perfectly contrary — but it is not contradictory, that
the pope should be worshipped in Rome, and burned
in London on the same day ; that while he was
called God's vicegerent in Italy, he should be repre-
sented in the streets of Moscow as a hog, for the
amusement of Peter the Great.

Mahomet, stationed at the right hand of God over
half the globe, and damned over the other half, is
the greatest of contrasts. Travel far from your own
country, and everything will be contrast for you.
The white man who first saw a negro was much
astonished ; but the first who said that the negro
was the offspring of a white pair astonishes me much

a 86 Philosophical

more ; I do not agree with him. A painter who rep-
resents white men, negroes, and oHve-colored peo-
ple, may display fine contrasts.

CONVULSIONARIES.

About the year 1724 the cemetery of St. Medard

abounded in amusement, and many miracles were

performed there. The following epigram by the

duchess of Maine gives a tolerable account of the

character of most of them :

Un decrotteur a la Royale,
Dti talon gauche estropie,
Obtint,potir grace speciale,
D'etre tortuettx de r autre pied.

A Port-Royal shoe-black, who had one lame leg,
To make both alike the Lord's favor did beg;
Heaven listened, and straightway a miracle came,
For quickly he rose up, with both his legs lame.

The miracles continued, as is well known, until

a guard was stationed at the cemetery.

De par le roi, defense a Dieu
Defaire miracles en ce lieu.

Louis to God: — To keep the peace,
Here miracles must henceforth cease.

It is also well known that the Jesuits, being no
longer able to perform similar miracles, in conse-
quence of Xavier having exhausted their stock of
grace and miraculous power, by resuscitating nine
dead persons at one time, resolved in order to coun-
teract the credit of the Jansenists, to engrave a print
of Jesus Christ dressed as a Jesuit. The Jansenists,
on the other hand, in order to give a satisfactory
proof that Jesus Christ had not assumed the habit of

Dictionary. 287

a Jesuit, filled Paris with convulsions, and attracted
great crowds of people to witness them. The coun-
sellor of parliament, Carre de Montgeron, went to
present to the king a quarto collection of all these
miracles, attested by a thousand witnesses. He was
very properly shut up in a chateau, where attempts
were made to restore his senses by regimen; but
truth always prevails over persecution, and the
miracles lasted for thirty years together, without in-
terruption. Sister Rose, Sister Illuminee, and the
sisters Promise and Comfitte, were scourged with
great energ}% without, however, exhibiting any ap-
pearance of the whipping next day. They were
bastinadoed on their stomachs without injury, and
placed before a large fire ; but, being defended by
certain pomades and preparations, were not burned.
At length, as every art is constantly advancing to-
wards perfection, their persecutors concluded with
actually thrusting swords through their chairs, and
with crucifying them. A famous schoolmaster had
also the benefit of crucifixion ; all which was done to
convince the world that a certain bull was ridiculous,
a fact that might have been easily proved without
so much trouble. However, Jesuits and Jansenists
all united against the "Spirit of Laws," and against
.... and against .... and against ....
and And after all this we dare to ridi-
cule Laplanders, Samoyeds, and negroes !

288 Philosophical

CORN.

They must be skeptics indeed who doubt that
pain comes from paiiis. But to make bread we must
have corn. The Gauls had corn in the time of
Caesar; but whence did they take the word blef
It is pretended that it is from hladtnn, a word em-
ployed in the barbarous Latin of the middle age by
the Chancellor Desvignes, or De Erneis, whose eyes,
it is said, were torn out by order of the Emperor
Frederick II.

But the Latin words of these barbarous ages
were only ancient Celtic or Teutonic words Latin-
ized. Bladum then comes from our hlead, and not
our hlead from bladum. The Italians call it bioda,
and the countries in which the ancient Roman
language is preserved, still say blia.

This knowledge is not infinitely useful ; but we
are curious to know where the Gauls and Teutons
found corn to sow? We are told that the Tyrians
brought it into Spain, the Spaniards into Gaul, and
the Gauls into Germany. And where did the
Tyrians get this corn? Probably from the Greeks,
in exchange for their alphabet.

Who made this present to the Greeks? It was
the goddess Ceres, without doubt ; and having
ascended to Ceres, we can scarcely go any higher.
Ceres must have descended from heaven expressly
to give us wheat, rye, and barley. However, as the
credit of Ceres, who gave corn to the Greeks, and

Dictionary. 2,^9

that of Ishet, or Isis, who gratified the Egyptians
with it, are at present very much decayed, we may
still be said to remain in uncertainty as to the origin
of corn.

Sanchoniathon tells us that Dagon or Dagan, one
of the grandsons of Thaut, had the superintendence
of the corn in Phoenicia. Now his Thaut was near
the time of our Jared ; from which it appears that
corn is very ancient, and that it is of the same an-
tiquity as grass. Perhaps this Dagon was the first
who made bread, but that is not demonstrated.

What a strange thing that we should know posi-
tively that we are obliged to Noah for wine, and
that we do not know to whom we owe the invention
of bread. And what is still more strange, we are
still so ungrateful to Noah that, w^iile we have more
than two thousand songs in honor of Bacchus, we
scarcely sing one in honor of our benefactor, Noah.

A Jew assured me that corn came without culti-
vation in Mesopotamia, as apples, wild pears, chest-
nuts, and medlars, in the west. It is as well to be-
lieve him, until we are sure of the contrary; for it
is necessary that corn should grow spontaneously
somewhere. It has become the ordinary and indis-
pensable nourishment in the finest climates, and in
all the north.

The great philosophers whose talents we estimate

so highly, and whose systems we do not follow,

have pretended, in the natural history of the dog

(page 195), that men created corn; and that our
Vol. 7 — 19

290 Philosophical

ancestors, by means of sowing tares and cow-grass
together, changed them into wdieat. As these phi-
losophers are not of our opinion on shells, they will
permit us to differ from them on corn. We do not
think that tulips could ever have been produced
from jasmine. We find that the germ of corn is
quite different from that of tares, and we do not
believe in any transmutation. When it shall be
proved to us, we will retract.

We have seen, in the article "Breadtree," that
in three-cjuarters of the earth bread is not eaten. It
is pretended that the Ethiopians laughed at the
Egyptians, who lived on bread. But since corn is
our chief nourishment, it has become one of the
greatest objects of commerce and politics. So much
has been written on this subject, that if a laborer
sowed as many pounds of wheat as we have volumes
on this commodity, he might expect a more ample
harvest, and become richer than those who, in their
painted and gilded saloons, are ignorant of the ex-
cess of his oppression and misery.

Egypt became the best country in the world for
wheat when, after several ages, which it is difficult
to reckon exactly, the inhabitants found the secret
of rendering a destructive river — which had always
inundated the country, and was only useful to the
rats, insects, reptiles, and crocodiles of Egypt — serv-
iceable to the fecundity of the soil. Its waters,
mixed with a black mud, were neither useful to
quench the thirst of the inhabitants, nor for ablu-

Dictionary. 291

tion. It must have required a long time and pro-
digious labor to subdue the river, to divide it into
canals, to found towns on lands formerly movable,
and to change the caverns of the rocks into vast
buildings.

All this is more astonishing than the pyramids ;
for being accomplished, behold a people sure of the
best corn in the world, without the necessity of
labor ! It is the inhabitant of this country who
raises and fattens poultry superior to that of Caux,
who is habited in the finest linen in the most tem-
perate climate, and who has none of the real wants
of other people.

Towards the year 1750, the French nation, sur-
feited with tragedies, comedies, operas, romances,
and romantic histories — with moral reflections still
more romantic, and with theological disputes on
grace and on convulsionaries, began to reason upon
corn. They even forgot the vine, in treating of
wheat and rye. Useful things were written on agri-
culture, and everybody read them except the labor-
ers. The good people imagined, as they walked out
of the comic opera, that France had a prodigious
quantity of corn to sell, and the cry of the nation
at last obtained of the government, in 1764, the lib-
erty of exportation.

Accordingly they exported. The result was ex-
actly what it had been in the time of Henry IV.,
they sold a little too much, and a barren year suc-
ceeding, Mademoiselle Bernard was obliged, for the

292 Philosophical

second time, to sell her necklace to get linen and
chemises. Now the complainants passed from one
extreme to the other, and complained against the
exportation that they had so recently derrianded,
which shows how difficult it is to please all the world
and his wife.

Able and well-meaning people, without interest,
have written, with as much sagacity as courage, in
favor of the unlimited liberty of the commerce in
grain. Others, of as much mind, and with equally
pure views, have written in the idea of limiting this
liberty ; and the Neapolitan Abbe Gagliana amused
the French nation on the exportation of corn, by
finding out the secret of making, even in French,
dialogues as amusing as our best romances, and as
instructive as our good serious books. If this work
did not diminish the price of bread, it gave great
pleasure to the nation, which was what it valued
most. The partisans of unlimited exportation an
swered him smartly. The result was that the
readers no longer knew where they were, and the
greater part took to reading romances, expecting
that the three or four following years of abundance
would enable them to judge. The ladies were no
longer able to distinguish wheat from rye, while
honest devotees continued to believe that grain must
lie and rot in the ground in order to spring up
again.

Dictionary. ig^

COUNCILS.

Meetings of Ecclesiastics, Called Together to Re-
solve Doubts or Questions on Points of Faith or
Discipline.

The use of councils was not unknown to the fol-
lowers of the ancient religion of Zerdusht, whom we
call Zoroaster. About the year 200 of our era,
Ardeshir Babecan, king of Persia, called together
forty thousand priests, to consult them touching
some of his doubts about paradise and hell, which
they call the gchen — a term adopted by the Jews
during their captivity at Babylon, as they did the
names of the angels and of the months. Erdoviraph,
the most celebrated of the magi, having drunk three
glasses of a soporific wine, had an ecstasy which
lasted seven days and seven nights, during which his
soul was transported to God. When the paroxysm
was over, he reassured the faith of the king, by
relating to him the great many wonderful things
he had seen in the other world, and having them
written down.

We know that Jesus was called Christ, a Greek
word signifying anointed; and his doctrine Chris-
tianity, or gospel, i. e., good news, because having,
as was his custom, entered one Sabbath day the
synagogue of Nazareth, where he was brought up.
He applied to Himself this passage of Isaiah, which
He had just read: "The spirit of the Lord is on
me, because He hath anointed me to preach the

294 Philosophical

gospel to the poor." They of the synagogue did,
to be sure, drive Him out of their town, and carry
Him to a point of the hill, on which it was built, in
order to throw Him headlong from it; and His
relatives "went out to lay hold on Him," for they
were told, and they said, "that He was beside Him-
self." Nor is it less certain that Jesus constanily
declared He had come not to destroy the law or the
prophecies, but to fulfil them.

But, as He left nothing written, His first disciples
were divided on the famous question, whether the
Gentiles were to be circumcised and ordered to keep
the Mosaic law. The apostles and the priests, there-
fore, assembled at Jerusalem to examine this point,
and, after many conferences, they wrote to the
brethren among the Gentiles, at Antioch, in Syria,
and in Cilicia, a letter of which we give the sub-
stance : "It has seemed good to the Holy Ghost
and to us, not to impose upon you any obligations
but those which are necessary, viz., to abstain from
meats offered up to idols, from blood, from the
flesh of choked animals, and from fornication."

The decision of this council did not prevent
Peter, when at Antioch, from continuing to eat with
the Gentiles, before some of the circumcised, who
came from James, had arrived. But Paul, seeing
that he did not walk straight in the path of gospel
truth, resisted him to the face, saying to him before
them all. "If thou, being a Jew, livest after the
manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why

Dictionary. 295

compellest thou the Gentiles to Hve as do the Jews?"
Indeed Peter had Hved Hke the Gentiles ever since
he had seen, in a trance, "heaven opened, and a cer-
tain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a
great sheet, knit at the four corners, and let down to
the earth; wherein were all manner of four-footed
beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping
things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice
to him. Rise, Peter, kill and eat."

Paul, who so loudly reproved Peter for using
this dissimulation to make them believe that he
still observed the law, had himself recourse to a
similar feint at Jerusalem. Being accused of teach-
ing the Jews who were among the Gentiles to re-
nounce Moses, he went and purified himself in the
temple for seven days, in order that all might know
that what they had heard of him was false, and that
he continued to observe the law ; this, too, was done
by the advice of all the priests, assembled at the
house of James — which priests w-ere the same who
had decided with the Holy Ghost, that these obser-
vations were unnecessary.

Councils were afterwards distinguished into gen-
eral and particular. Particular councils are of three
kinds — national, convoked by the prince, the patri-
arch, or the primate ; provincial, assembled by the
metropolitan or archbishop ; and diocesan, or synods
held by each bishop. The following is a decree of
one of the councils held at Macon :

"Whenever a layman meet a priest or a deacon

296 Philosophical

on the road, he shall offer him his arm ; if the priest
and the layman are both on horseback, the layman
shall stop and salute the priest reverently; and if
the priest be on foot, and the layman on horseback,
the layman shall dismount, and shall not mount
again until the ecclesiastic be at a certain distance;
all on pain of interdiction for as long a time as it
shall please the metropolitan."

The list of the councils, in Moreri's "Dictionary,"
occupies more than sixteen pages, but as authors are
not agreed concerning the number of general coun-
cils, we shall here confine ourselves to the results
of the first eight that were assembled by order of the
emperors.

Two priests of Alexandria, seeking to know
whether Jesus was God or creature, not only did
the bishops and priests dispute but the whole people
were divided, and the disorder arrived at such a
pitch that the Pagans ridiculed Christianity on the
stage. The emperor Constantine first wrote in
these terms to Bishop Alexander and the priest
Arius, the authors of the dissension: "These ques-
tions, which are unnecessary, and spring only from
unprofitable idleness, may be discussed in order to
exercise the intellect ; but they should not be re-
peated in the hearing of the people. Being divided
on so small a matter, it is not just that you should
govern, according to your thoughts, so great a multi-
tude of God's people. Such conduct is mean and
puerile, unworthy of the priestly office, and of men

Dictionary. 297

of sense. I do not say this to compel you entirely
to agree on this frivolous question, whatever it is.
You may, with a private difference, preserve unity,
provided these subtleties and different opinions re-
main secret in your inmost thoughts."

The emperor, having learned that his letter was
without effect, resolved, by the advice of the bishops,
to convoke an ecumenical council — i. e., a council of
the whole habitable earth, and chose for the place of
meeting the town of Nicsea, in Bithynia. There
came thither two thousand and forty-eight bishops,
who, as Eutychius relates, were all of different sen-
timents and opinions. This prince, having had the
patience to hear them dispute on this point, was
much surprised at finding among them so little
unanimity ; and the author of the Arabic preface to
this council says that the records of these disputes
amounted to forty volumes.

This prodigious number of bishops will not ap-
pear incredible when it is recollected that Usher,
quoted by Selden, relates that St. Patrick, who lived
in the fifth century, founded three hundred and
sixty-five churches, and ordained the like number of
bishops ; which proves that then each church had its
bishop, that is, its overlooker.

In the Council of Nice there was read a letter
from Eusebius of Nicomedia, containing manifest
heresy, and discovering the cabal of Arius's party.
In it was said, among other things, that if Jesus
were acknowledged to be the Son of God uncreated,

298 Philosophical

He must also be acknowledged to be consubstantial
with the Father. Therefore it was that Athanasius,
a deacon of Alexandria, persuaded the fathers to
dwell on the word consubstantial, which had been
rejected as improper by the Council of Antioch, held
against Paul of Samosata ; but he took it in a gross
sense, marking division ; as we say, that several
pieces of money are of the same metal : whereas
the orthodox explained the term consubstantial so
well, that the emperor himself comprehended that
it involved no corporeal idea — signified no division
of the absohitely immaterial and spiritual substance
of the Father — but was to be understood in a
divine and ineffable sense. They moreover showed
the injustice of the Arians in rejecting this word
on pretence that it was not in the Scriptures — they
who employ so many words which are not there
to be found ; and who say that the Son of God was
brought out of nothing, and had not existed from
all eternity.

Constantine then wrote two letters at the same
time, to give publicity to the ordinances of the coun-
cil, and make them known to such as had not at-
tended it. The first, addressed to the churches in
general, says, in so many words, that the question
of the faith has been examined, and so well cleared
up, that no difficulty remains. In the second, among
others, the church of Alexandria is thus addressed :
"What three hundred bishops have ordained is no
other than the seed of the only Son of God; the

Dictionary. 299

Holy Ghost has declared the will of God through
these great men, whom he inspired. Now, then, let
none doubt — let none dispute, but each one return
with all his heart into the way of truth."

The ecclesiastical writers are not agreed as to
the number of bishops who subscribed to the ordi-
nances of this council. Eusebius reckons only two
hundred and fifty ; Eustathius of Antioch, cited by
Theodoret, two hundred and seventy ; St. Athan-
asius, in his epistle to the Solitaries, three hundred,
like Constantine ; while, in his letter to the Africans,
he speaks of three hundred and eighteen. Yet these
four authors were eye-witnesses, and worthy of
great faith.

This number 318, which Pope St. Leo calls mys-
terious, has been adopted by most of the fathers of
the church. St. Ambrose assures us that the number
of 318 bishops was a proof of the presence of our
Lord Jesus Christ in his Council of Nicsea, because
the cross designates three hundred, and the name of
Jesus eighteen. St. Hilary, in his defence of the
word consiihsiantial, approved in the Council of
Nice, though condemned fifty-five years before in
the Council of Antioch, reasons thus : "Eighty
bishops rejected the word consnhstantial, but three
hundred and eighteen have received it. Now this
latter number seems to me a sacred number, for it
is that of the men who accompanied Abraham,
when, after his victory over the impious kings, he
was blessed by him who is the type of the eternal

300 Philosophical

priesthood." And Selden relates that Dorotheus,
metropolitan of Monembasis, said there were pre-
cisely three hundred and eighteen fathers at this
council, because three hundred and eighteen years
had elapsed since the incarnation. All chronologists
place this council in the year 325 of our modern era ;
but Dorotheus deducts seven years, to make his com-
parison complete; this, however, is a mere trifle.
Besides, it was not until the Council of Lestines, in
743, that the years began to be counted from the
incarnation of Jesus. Dionysius the Less had im-
agined this epoch in his solar cycle of the year 526,
and Bede had made use of it in his "Ecclesiastical
History."

It will not be a subject of astonishment that Con-
stantine adopted the opinion of the three hundred
or three hundred and eighteen bishops who held the
divinity of Jesus, when it is borne in mind that
Eusebius of Nicomedia, one of the principal leaders
of the Arian party, had been an accomplice in the
cruelty of Licinius, in the massacres of the bishops,
and the persecutions of the Christians. Of this the
emperor himself accuses him, in the private letter
which he wrote to the church of Nicomedia :

"He sent spies about me," says he, "in the
troubles, and did everything but take up arms for
the tyrant. I have proofs of this from the priests
and deacons of his train, whom I took. During the
Council of Nicsea, with what eagerness and what
impudence he maintained, against the testimony of

Dictionary^ 301

his conscience, the error exploded on every side!
repeatedly imploring my protection, lest, being con-
victed of so great a crime, he should lose his dignity.
He shamefully circumvented and took me by sur-
prise, and carried everything as he chose. Again,
see what has been done but lately by him and Theo-
genes."

Constantine here alludes to the fraud which Eu-
sebius of Nicomedia and Theogenes of Nicsea re-
sorted to in subscribing. In the word "omoousios,"
they inserted an iota, making it "omoiousios," mean-
ing of like substance ; whereas the first means of the
same substance. We hereby see that these bishops
yielded to the fear of being displaced or banished ;
for the emperor had threatened with exile such as
should not subscribe. The other Eusebius, too,
bishop of Caesarea, approved the word consubstan-
tial, after condemning it the day before.

However, Theonas of Marmarica, and Secundus
of Ptolemais continued obstinately attached to
Arius ; and, the council, having condemned them
with him, Constantine banished them, and declared
by an edict that whosoever should be convicted of
concealing any of the writings of Arius instead of
burning them, should be punished with death.
Three months after, Eusebius of Nicomedia and
Theogenes were likewise exiled into Gaul. It is
said that, having gained over the individual who,
by the emperor's order, kept the acts of the council,
they had erased their signatures, and begun to teach

302 Philosophical

in pn!)lic that the .Son must not be believed to be
consubstantial with the Father.

Happily, to replace their signatures and preserve
entire the mysterious number three hundred and
eighteen, the expedient was tried of laying the book,
in which the acts were divided into sessions, on the
tomb of Chrysanthus and Mysonius, who had died
while the council was in session ; the night was
passed in prayer and the next morning it was found
that these two bishops had signed.

It was by an expedient nearly similar, that the
fathers of the same council distinguished the au-
thentic from the apocryphal books of Scripture.
Having placed them altogether upon the altar, the
apocryphal books fell to the ground of themselves.

Two other councils, assembled by the emperor
Constantine, in the year 359, the one, of upwards
of four hundred bishops, at Rimini, the other, of
more than a hundred and fifty, at Seleucia ; after
long debates, rejected the word consubstantial, al-
ready condemned, as we have before said, by a
Council of Antioch. But these councils are recog-
nized only by the Socinians.

The Nicene fathers had been so much (Occupied
with the consubstantiality of the Son, that they had
made no mention of the church in their symbol, but
contented themselves with saying, "We also believe
in the Holy Ghost." This omission was supplied in
the second general council, convoked at Constanti-
nople, in 381, by Theodosius. The Holy Ghost wa?

Dictionary. 303

there declared to be the Lord and giver of hfe, pro-
ceeding- from the Father, who with the Father and
Son is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the
prophets. Afterwards the Latin church would have
the Holy Ghost proceed from the Son also; and
the '"filioque" was added to the symbol : first in
Spain, in 447 ; then in France, at the Council of
Lyons, in 1274; and lastly at Rome, notwithstand-
ing the complaints made by the Greeks against this
innovation.

The divinity of Jesus being once established, it
was natural to give to his mother the title of Mother
of God. However, Nestorius, patriarch of Constan-
tinople, maintained in his sermons that this would
be justifying the folly of the Pagans, who gave
mothers to their gods. Theodosius the younger,
to have this great question decided, assembled the
third general council at Ephesus, in the year 431,
and in it Mary was acknowledged to be the mother
of God.

Another heresy of Nestorius, likewise condemned
at Ephesus, was that of admitting two persons in
Jesus. Nevertheless, the patriarch Photius sub-
sequently acknowledged two natures in Jesus. A
monk named Eutyches, who had already ex-
claimed loudly against Nestorius, ajffirmed, the
better to contradict them both, that Jesus had also
but one nature. But this time the monk was wrong;
although, in 449, his opinion had been maintained by
blov.s in a numerous council at Ephesus. Eutyches

304 Philosophical

was nevertheless anathematized, two years after-
wards, by the fourth general council, held under the
emperor Marcian at Chalcedon, in which two na-
tures were assigned to Jesus.

It was still to be determined, with one person and
two natures, how many wills Jesus was to have.
The fifth general council, which in the year 553
quelled, by Justinian's order, the contentions about
the doctrine of three bishops, had no leisure to set-
tle this important point. It was not until the year
680 that the sixth general council, also convened at
Constantinople by Constantine Pogonatus, informed
us that Jesus had precisely two wills. This council,
in condemning the Monothelites, who admitted only
one, made no exception from the anathema in favor
of Pope Honorius I., who, in a letter given by Baro-
nius, had said to the patriarch of Constantinople :

"We confess in Jesus Christ one only will. We
do not see that either the councils or the Scriptures
authorize us to think otherwise. But whether, from
the works of divinity and of humanity which are in
him, we are to look for two operations, is a point of
little importance, and one which I leave it to '.he
grammarians to decide."

Thus, in this instance, with God's permission,
the account between the Greek and Latin churches
was balanced. As the patriarch Nestorius had been
condemned for acknowledging two persons in Je-
sus, so Pope Honorius was now condemned for
admitting but one will in Jesus.

Dictionary. 305

The seventh general council, or the second of
Nice, was assembled in 787, by Constantine, son
of Leo and Irene, to re-establish the worship of
images. The reader must know that two Councils
of Constantinople, the first in 730, under the em-
peror Leo, the other twenty-four years after, under
Constantine Copronymus, had thought proper to
proscribe images, conformably to the Mosaic law
and to the usage of the early ages of Christianity.
So, also, the Nicene decree, in which it is said that
"whosoever shall not render service and adoration
to the images of the saints as to the Trinity, shall
be deemed anathematized," at first encountered some
opposition. The bishops who introduced it, in a
Council of Constantinople, held in 789, were turned
out by soldiers. The same decree was also rejected
with scorn by the Council of Frankfort in 794, and
by the Caroline books, published by order of
Charlemagne. But the second Council of Nice was
at length confirmed at Constantinople under the em-
peror Michael and his mother Theodora, in the year
842, by a numerous council, which anathematized
the enemies of holy images. Be it here observed, it
was by two women, the empresses Irene and Theo-
dora, that the images were protected.

We pass on to the eighth general council. Under
the emperor Basilius, Photius, ordained patriarch
of Constantinople in place of Ignatius, had the Latin
church condemned for the "filioque" and other prac-
tices, by a council of the year 866: but Ignatius
Vol. 7 — 20

3o6 Philosophical

being recalled the following year, another council
removed Photius ; and in the year 869 the Latins, in
their turn, condemned the Greek church in what
they called the eighth general council — while those
in the East gave this name to another council, which,
ten years after, annulled what the preceding one
had done, and restored Photius.

These four councils were held at Constantinople ;
the others, called general by the Latins, having been
composed of the bishops of the West only, the popes,
with the aid of false decretals, gradually arrogated
the right of convoking them. The last of these
which assembled at Trent, from 1545 to 1563, neither
served to convert the enemies of papacy nor to sub-
due them. Its decrees, in discipline, have been
scarcely admitted into any one Catholic nation : its
only effect has been to verify these words of St.
Gregory Nazianzen : "I have not seen one council
that has acted with good faith, or that has not aug-
mented the evils complained of rather than cured
them. Ambition and the love of disputation, beyond
the power of words to express, reign in every as-
sembly of bishops."

However, the Council of Constance, in 1415, hav-
ing decided that a council-general receives its au-
thority immediately from Jesus Christ, which au-
thority every person, of whatever rank or dignity,
is bound to obey in all that concerns the faith ; and
the Council of Basel having afterwards confirmed
this decree, which it holds to be an article of faith

Dictionary. 307

which cannot be neglected without renouncing sal-
vation, it is clear how deeply every one is interested
in paying submission to councils.

SECTION II.

Notice of the General Councils.

Assembly, council of state, parliament, states-
general, formerly signified the same thing. In the
primitive ages nothing was written in Celtic, nor in
German, nor in Spanish. The little that was writ-
ten was conceived in the Latin tongue by a few
clerks, who expressed every meeting of lendes, her-
ren, or ricohomhres, by the word concilium. Hence
it is that we find in the sixth, seventh, and eighth
centuries so many councils which were nothing more
than councils of state.

We shall here speak only of the great councils
called general, whether by the Greek or by the
Latin church. At Rome they were called synods,
as they were in the East in the primitive ages — for
the Latins borrowed names as well as things from
the Greeks.

In 325 there was a great council in the city of
Nicaea, convoked by Constantine. The form of its
decision was this : "We believe that Jesus is of one
substance with the Father, God of God, light of
light, begotten, not made. We also believe in the
Holy Ghost."

Nicephorus affirms that two bishops, Chrysan-
thus and Mysonius, who had died during the first

3o8 Philosophical

sittings, rose again to sign the condemnation of
Arius, and incontinently died again, as I have al-
ready observed. Baronius maintains this fact, but
Fleury says nothing of it.

In 359 the emperor Constantius assembled the
great councils of Rimini and of Seleucia, consisting
of six hundred bishops, with a prodigious number
of priests. These two councils, corresponding to-
gether, undo all that the Council of Nice did, and
proscribe the consubstantiality. But this was after-
wards regarded as a false council.

In 381 was held, by order of the emperor The-
odosius, a great council at Constantinople, of one
hundred and fifty bishops, who anathematize the
Council of Rimini. St. Gregory Nazianzen pre-
sides, and the bishop of Rome sends deputies to it.
Now is added to the Nicene symbol : "J^^us Christ
was incarnate, by the Holy Ghost, of the Virgin
Mary. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pi-
late. He was buried, and on the third day he rose
again, according to the Scriptures. He sits at the
right hand of the Father. We also believe in the
Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, who pro-
ceeds from the Father."

In 431 a great council was convoked at Ephesus,
by the emperor Theodosius II. Nestorius, bishop of
Constantinople, having violently persecuted all who
were not of his opinion on theological points, un-
dergoes persecution in his turn, for having main-
tained that the Holy Virgin Mary, mother of Je-

Dictionary. 309

sus Christ, was not mother of God ; because
said he, Jesus Christ being the word, the Son of
God, consubstantial with His Father, Mary could
not, at the same time, be mother of God the Father
and of God the Son. St. Cyril exclaims loudly
against him. Nestorius demands an ecumenical
council, and obtains it. Nestorius is condemned ;
but Cyril is also displaced by a committee of the
council. The emperor reverses all that has been
done in this council, then permits it to re-assemble.
The deputies from Rome arrive very late. The
troubles increasing, the emperor has Nestorius and
Cyril arrested. At last he orders all the bishops
to return, each to his church, and after all no con-
clusion is reached. Such was the famous Council of
Ephesus.

In 449 another great council, afterward called
"the banditti," met at Ephesus. The number of
bishops assembled is a hundred and thirty; and
Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria, presided. There
are two deputies from the church of Rome, and sev-
eral abbots. The question is, whether Jesus Christ
has two natures. The bishops and all the monks of
Egy^pt exclaim that "all who would divide Jesus
Christ ought themselves to be torn in two." The
two natures are anathematized ; and there is a fight
in full council, as at the little Council of Cirta in
355, and at the minor Council of Carthage.

In 452, the great Council of Chalcedon was con-
voked by Pulcheria, who married Marcian on con-

3IO Philosophical

dition that he should be only the highest of her sub-
jects. St. Leo, bishop of Rome, having great in-
fluence, takes advantage of the troubles which the
quarrel about the two natures has occasioned in the
empire, and presides at the council by his legates —
of which we have no former example. But the
fathers of the council, apprehending that the church
of the West will, from this precedent, pretend to the
superiority over that of the East, decide by their
twenty-eighth canon, that the see of Constantinople,
and that of Rome, shall enjoy alike the same ad-
vantages and the same privileges. This was the
origin of the long enmity which prevailed, and still
prevails, between the two churches. This Council
of Chalcedon established the two natures in one
only person,

Nicephorus relates that, at this same council,
the bishops, after a long dispute on the subject of
images, laid each his opinion in writing on the tomb
of St. Euphemia, and passed the night in prayer.
The next morning the orthodox writings were found
in the saint's hand, and the others at her feet.

In 553, a great council at Constantinople was
convoked by Justinian, who was an amateur theo-
logian, to discuss three small writings, called the
three chapters, of which nothing is now known.
There were also disputes on some passages of
Origen.

Vigilius, bishop of Rome, would have gone thither
in person; but Justinian had him put in prison,

Dictionary. 3 1 1

and the Patriarch of Constantinople presided. No
member of the Latin church attended; for at that
time Greek was no longer understood in the West,
which had become entirely barbarous.

In 680, another general council at Constantino-
ple was convoked by Constantine the bearded. This
was the first council called by the Latins in trullo,
because it was held in an apartment of the imperial
palace. The emperor, himself, presided ; on his
right hand were the patriarchs of Constantinople
and Antioch; on his left, the deputies from Rome
and Jerusalem. It was there decided that Jesus
Christ had two wills ; and Pope Honorius I., was
condemned as a Monothelite, i. e., as wishing Jesus
Christ to have but one will

In 787, the second Council of Nice was convoked
by Irene, in the name of the emperor Constantine,
her son, whom she had deprived of his eyes. Her
husband, Leo, had abolished the worship of im-
ages, as contrary to the simplicity of the primitive
ages, and leading to idolatry. Irene re-establisHed
this worship ; she herself spoke in the council,
which was the only one held by a woman. Two
legates from Pope Adrian V., attended, but did not
speak, for they did not understand Greek: the pa-
triarch did all.

Seven years after, the Franks, having heard that
a council at Constantinople had ordained the adora-
tion of images, assemble, by order of Charles, son
of Pepin, afterwards named Charlemagne, a very

312 Philosophical

numerous council at Frankfort. Here the second
Council of Nice is spoken of as "an impertinent
and arrogant synod, held in Greece for the worship-
ping of pictures."

In 842, a great council at Constantinople was
convoked by the empress Theodora. The worship
of images was solemnly established. The Greeks
iiave still a feast in honor of this council, called
the orthodoxia. Theodora did not preside. In 861,
a great council at Constantinople, consisting of
three hundred and eighteen bishops, was convoked
by the emperor Michael. St. Ignatius, patriarch of
Constantinople, is deposed, and Photius elected.

In 866, another great council was held at Con-
stantinople, in which Pope Nicholas III. is deposed
for contumacy, and excommunicated. In 869 was
another great council at Constantinople, in which
Photius, in turn, is deposed and excommunicated,
and St. Ignatius restored.

In 879, another great council assembled at Con-
stantinople, in which Photius, already restored, is
acknowledged as true patriarch by the legates of
Pope John VIII. Here the great ecumenical coun-
cil, in which Photius was deposed, receives the ap-
pellation of "conciliabuhmi." Pope John VIII. de-
clares all those to be Judases who say that the Holy
Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son.

In 1 122-3, ^ great council at Rome was held in
the church of St. John of Lateran by Pope Calixtus
II. This was the first general council convoked by

Dictionary. 313

the popes. The emperors of the West had now
scarcely any authority; and the emperors of the
East, pressed by the Mahometans and by the Crusa-
ders, held none but wretched little councils.

It is not precisely known what this Lateran was.
Some small councils had before been assembled in
the Lateran. Some say that it was a house built by
one Lateran in Nero's time ; others, that it was St.
John's church itself, built by Bishop Sylvester. In
this council, the bishops complained heavily of the
monks. "They possess," said they, "the churches,
the lands, the castles, the tithes, the offerings of the
living and the dead ; they have only to take from
us the ring and the crosier." The monks remained
in possession.

In 1 1 39 was another great Council of Lateran, by
Pope Innocent 11. It is said there were present a
thousand bishops. A great many, certainly. Here
the ecclesiastical tithes are declared to be of divine
right, and all laymen possessing any of them are
excommunicated. In 11 79 was another great Coun-
cil of Lateran, by Pope Alexander III. There were
three hundred bishops and one Greek abbot. The
decrees are all on discipline. The plurality of bene-
fices is forbidden.

In 121 5 was the last general Council of Lateran,
by Pope Innocent III., composed of four hundred
and twelve bishops, and eight hundred abbots. At
this time, which is that of the Crusades, the popes
have established a Latin patriarch at Jerusalem, and

314 Philosophical

one at Constantinople. These patriarchs attend the
council. This great council says that, "God hav-
ing given the doctrine of salvation to men by Moses,
at length caused His son to be born of a virgin, ta
show the way more clearly," and that "no one can
be saved out of the Catholic church."

The transuhstantiation was not known until aftei
this council. It forbade the establishment of new
religious orders ; but, since that time, no less than
eighty have been instituted. It was in this council
that Raymond, count of Toulouse, was stripped of
all his lands. In 1245 a great council assembled at
the imperial city of Lyons. Innocent IV. brings
thither the emperor of Constantinople, John Palaeol-
ogus, and makes him sit beside him. He deposes
the emperor Frederick as a felon, and gives the car-
dinals red hats, as a sign of hostility to Frederick.
This was the source of thirty years of civil war.

In 1274 another general council was held at Ly-
ons. Five hundred bishops, seventy great and a
thousand lesser abbots. The Greek emperor, Mi-
chael Palaeologus, that he may have the protection of
the pope, sends his Greek patriarch, Theophanes, to
unite, in his name, with the Latin church. But the
Greek church disowns these bishops.

In 131 T, Pope Clement V. assembled a general
council in the small town of Vienne, in Dauphiny, in
which he abolishes the Order of the Templars. It
is here ordained that the Begares, Beguins, and Be-
guines shall be burned. These were a species of

Dictionary. 315

heretics, to whom was imputed all that had formerly
been imputed to the primitive Christians. In 1414,
the great Council of Constance was convoked by an
emperor who resumes his rights, viz. : by Sigis-
mund. Here Pope John XXIII. , convicted of nu-
merous crimes, is deposed ; and John Huss and Je-
rome of Prague, convicted of obstinacy, are burned.
In 143 1, a great council was held at Basel, where
they in vain depose Pope Eugene IV., who is too
clever for the council.

In 1438, a great council assembled at Ferrara,
transferred to Florence, where the excommunicated
pope excommunicates the council, and declares it
guilty of high treason. Here a feigned union is
made with the Greek church, crushed by the Turk-
ish synods held sword in hand. Pope Julius II.
would have had his Council of Lateran, in 15 12.
pass for an ecumenical council. In it that pope sol-
emnly excommunicated Louis XII., king of France,
laid France under an interdict, summoned the whole
parliament of Provence to appear before him, and
excommunicated all the philosophers, because most
of them had taken part with Louis XII. Yet this
council was not, like that of Ephesus, called the
Council of Robbers.

In 1537, the Council of Trent was convoked,
Arst at Mantua, by Paul III., afterwards at Trent
in 1543, and terminated in December, 1561, under
Pius VI. Catholic princes submitted to it on points
of doctrine, and two or three of them in matters of

3i6 Philosophical

discipline. It is thought that henceforward there
will be no more general councils than there will be
states-general in France or Spain. In the Vatican
there is a fine picture, containing a list of the gen-
eral councils, in which are inscribed such only as
are approved by the court of Rome. Every one
puts what he chooses in his own archives.

SECTION III.

Infallibility of Councils.

All councils are, doubtless, infallible, being com-
posed of men. It is not possible that the passions,
that intrigues, that the spirit of contention, that ha-
tred or jealousy, that prejudice or ignorance, should
ever influence these assemblies. But why, it will
be said, have so many councils been opposed to one
another? To exercise our faith. They were all
right, each in its time. At this day, the Roman
Catholics believe in such councils only as are ap-
proved in the Vatican ; the Greek Catholics believe
only in those approved at Constantinople ; and the
Protestants make a jest of both the one and the
other : so that every one ought to be content.

We shall here examine only the great councils:
the lesser ones are not worth the trouble. The first
was that of Nice, assembled in the year 325 of the
modern era, after Constantine had written and sent
by Osius his noble letter to the rather turbulent
clergy of Alexandria. It was debated wliether Je-
sus was created or uncreated. This in no way con-
cerned morality, which is the only thing essential.

Dictionary. 317

Whether Jesus was in time or before time, it is not
the less our duty to be honest. After much alter-
cation, it was at last decided that the Son was as
old as the Father, and consiibstantial with the
Father. This decision is not very easy of compre-
hension, which makes it but the more sublime. Sev-
enteen bishops protested against the decree ; and
an old Alexandrian chronicle, preserved at Oxford,
says that two thousand priests likewise protested.
But prelates make not much account of mere priests,
who are in general poor. However, there was noth-
ing said of the Trinity in this first council. Tlie
formula runs thus : "We believe Jesus to be con-
substantial with the Father, God of God, light of
light, begotten, not made ; we also believe in the
Holy Ghost." It must be acknowledged that the
Holy Ghost was treated very cavalierly.

We have already said, that in the supplement to
the Council of Nice it is related that the fathers,
being much perplexed to find out which were the
authentic and which the apocryphal books of the
Old and the New Testament, laid them all upon an
altar, and the books which they were to reject fell
to the ground. What a pity that so fine an ordeal
has been lost !

After the first Council of Nice, composed of three
hundred and seventeen infallible bishops, another
council was held at Rimini ; on which occasion the
number of the infallible was four hundred, with-
out reckoning a strong detachment, at Seleucia,

3 1 8 Philosophical

of about two hundred. These six hundred bishops,
after four months of contention, unanimously took
from Jesus his consuhstantiality. It has since been
restored to him, except by the Socinians : so noth-
ing is amiss.

One of the great councils was that of Ephesus,
in 431. There, as already stated, Nestorius, bishop
of Constantinople, a great persecutor of heretics,
was himself condemned as a heretic, for having
maintained that, ahhough Jesus was really God,
yet His mother was not absolutely mother of God,
but mother of Jesus. St. Cyril procured the con-
demnation of Nestorius ; but the partisans of Nes-
torius also procured the deposition of St. Cyril, in
the same council ; which put the Holy Ghost in
considerable perplexity.

Here, gentle reader, carefully observe, that the
Gospel says not one syllable of the consuhstantiality
of the Word, nor of Mary's having had the honor
of being mother of God, no more than of the
other disputed points which brought together so
many infallible councils.

Eutyches was a monk, who had cried out sturdily
against Nestorius, whose heresy was nothing less
than supposing two persons in Jesus ; which is quite
frightful. The monk, the better to contradict his
adversary, affirmed that Jesus had but one nature.
One Flavian, bishop of Constantinople, maintained
against him, that there must absolutely be two na-
tures in Jesus. Thereupon, a numerous council was

Dictionary. 319

held at Ephesiis in 449, and the argument made use
of was the cudgel, as in the lesser council of Cirta,
in 355, and in a certain conference held at Carthage.
Flavian's nature was well thrashed, and two natures
were assigned to Jesus. At the Council of Chalce-
don, in 451, Jesus was again reduced to one nature.

I pass by councils held on less weighty questions,
and come to the sixth general Council of Constanti-
nople, assembled to ascertain precisely whether Je-
sus— who, after having for a long period had but
one nature, was then possessed of two — had also two
wills. It is obvious how important this knowledge
is to doing the will of God.

This council was convoked by Constantine the
Bearded, as all the others had been by the preceding
emperors. The legates from the bishop of Rome
were on the left hand, and the patriarchs of Con-
stantinople and Antioch on the right. The train-
bearers at Rome may, for aught I know, assert that
the left hand is the place of honor. However, the
result was that Jesus obtained two wills.

The Mosaic law forbade images. Painters and
sculptors had never made their fortunes among the
Jews. We do not find that Jesus ever had any pic-
tures, excepting perhaps that of Mary, painted by
Luke. It is, however, certain that Jesus Christ no-
where recommends the worship of images. Never-
theless the primitive Christians began to worship
them about the end of the fourth century, when they
had become familiar with the fine arts. In the

320 Philosophical

eighth century this abuse had arrived at such a pitch
that Constantine Copronymus assembled, at Con-
stantinople, a council of three hundred and twenty
bishops, who anathematized image-w^orship, and de-
clared it to be idolatry.

The empress Irene, the same who afterwards
had her son's eyes torn out, convoked the second
Council of Nice in 787, when the adoration of images
was re-established. But in 794 Charlemagne had
another council held at Frankfort, w^hich declared
the second of Nice idolatrous. Pope Adrian IV.
sent two legates to it, but he did not convoke it.

The first great council convoked by a pope was
the first of Lateran, in 11 39; there were about a
thousand bishops assembled ; but scarcely anything
was done, except that all those were anathemat-
ized who said that the Church was too rich. In 1 179,
another great council of Lateran was held by Alex-
ander III., in which the cardinals, for the first time,
took precedence of the bishops. The discussions
were confined to matters of discipline. In another
great council of Lateran, in 121 5, Pope Innocent
III. stripped the count of Toulouse of all his pos-
sessions, by virtue of his excommunication. It
was then that the first mention was made of tran-
snbsfanfiation.

In 1245, was held a general council at Lyons,
then an imperial city, in which Pope Innocent IV.
excommunicated the emperor Frederick II., and
consequently deposed him, and forbade him the use

Dictionaryo 321

of fire and water. On this occasion, a red hat was
given to the cardinals, to remind them that they
must imbrue their hands in the blood of the em-
peror's partisans. This council was the cause of
the destruction of the house of Suabia, and of thirty-
years of anarchy in Italy and Germany.

In a general council held at Vienne, in Dauphiny,
in 131 1, the Order of the Templars was abolished:
its principal members having been condemned to the
most horrible deaths, on charges most imperfectly
established. The great Council of Constance, in
1414, contented itself with dismissing Pope John
XXIII., convicted of a thousand crimes, but had
John Huss and Jerome of Prague burned for being
obstinate ; obstinacy being a much more grievous
crime than either murder, rape, simony, or sodomy.
In 1430 was held the great council of Basel, not
recognized at Rome because it deposed Pope Eu-
genius IV., who would not be deposed. The Ro-
mans reckon among the general councils the fifth
Council of Lateran, convoked against Louis XII.,
king of France, by Pope Julius II. ; but that war-
like pope dying, the council had no result.

Lastly, we have the great Council of Trent, which
is not received in France in matters of discipline;
but its doctrine is indisputable, since, as Fra Paolo
Sarpi tells us, the Holy Ghost arrived at Trent from
Rome every week in the courier's bag. But Fra
Paolo Sarpi was a little tainted with heresy.

Vol. 7 — 21

VOLTAIRE

A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY

Vol. IV — Part il

A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY.

COUNTRY.
According to our custom, we confine ourselves
on this subject to the statement of a few queries
which we cannot resolve. Has a Jew a country? If
he is born at Coimbra, it is in the midst of a crowd
of ignorant and absurd persons, who will dispute
with him, and to whom he makes foolish answers,
if he dare reply at all. He is surrounded by inquis-
itors, who would burn him if they knew that he
declined to eat bacon, and all his wealth would be-
long to them. Is Coimbra his country? Can he
exclaim, like the Horatii in Corneille:

M our ir pour la pa trie est tin si digne sort
Quon briguerait en foule, U7te si belie niort.

So high his meed who for his country dies,
Men should contend to gain the glorious prize.

He might as well exclaim, "fiddlestick !" Again !
is Jerusalem his country? He has probably heard
of his ancestors of old ; that they had formerly in-
habited a sterile and stony country, which is bor-
dered by a horrible desert, of which little country
the Turks are at present masters, but derive little
or nothing from it. Jerusalem is, therefore, not
his country. In short, he has no country: there is

5

6 Philosophical

not a square foot of land on the globe which belongs
to him.

The Gueber, more ancient, and a hundred times
more respectable than the Jew, a slave of the Turks,
the Persians, or the Great ^logul, can he regard as
his country the fire-altars which he raises in secret
among the mountains ? The Banian, the Armenian,
who pass their lives in wandering through all the
east, in the capacity of money-brokers, can they ex-
claim, "My dear country, my dear country" — who
have no other country than their purses and their
account-books ?

Among the nations of Europe, all those cut-
throats who let out their services to hire, and sell
their blood to the first king who will purchase it —
have they a country? Not so much so as a bird of
prey, who returns every evening to the hollow of
the rock where its mother built its nest! The
monks — will they venture to sa}' that they have a
country ? It is in heaven, they say. All in good
time ; but in this world I know nothing about one.

This expression, "my country," how sounds it
from the mouth of a Greek, who, altogether ig-
norant of the previous existence of a Miltiades, an
Agesilaus, only knows that he is the slave of a jan-
issary, who is the slave of an aga, who is the slave
of a pasha, who is the slave of a vizier, who is the
slave of an individual whom we call, in Paris, the
Grand Turk ?

What, then, is country? — Is it not, probably, a

Dictionary. 7

good piece of ground, in the midst of which the
owner, residing in a well-built and commodious
house, may say : "This field which I cultivate, this
house which I have built, is my own ; I live under
the protection of laws which no tyrant can infringe.
When those who, like me, possess fields and houses
assemble for their common interests, I have a voice
in such assembly. I am a part of the whole, one of
the community, a portion of the sovereignty : be-
hold my country !" What cannot be included in
this description too often amounts to little beyond
studs of horses under the command of a groom,
who employs the whip at his pleasure. People may
have a country under a good king, but never under
a bad one.

SECTION II.

A young pastry-cook who had been to college,
and who had mustered some phrases from Cicero,
gave himself airs one day about loving his country.
"What dost thou mean by country?" said a neigh-
bor to him. "Is it thy oven? Is it the village where
thou wast born, which thou hast never seen, and to
which thou wilt never return? Is it the street in
which thy father and mother reside ? Is it the town
hall, where thou wilt never become so much as a
clerk or an alderman? Is it the church of Notre
Dame, in which thou hast not been able to obtain
a place among the boys of the choir, although a very
sillv person, who is archbishop and duke, obtains

8 Philosophical

from it an annual income of twenty-four thousand
louisd'or?"

The young pastry-cook knew not how to reply;
and a person of reflection, who overheard the con-
versation, was led to infer that a country of mod-
erate extent may contain many millions of men who
have no country at all. And thou, voluptuous Pa-
risian, who hast never made a longer voyage than
to Dieppe, to feed upon fresh sea-fish — who art
acquainted only with thy splendid town-house, thy
pretty villa in the country, thy box at that opera
which all the world makes it a point to feel tiresome
but thyself — who speakest thy own language agree-
ably enough, because thou art ignorant of every
other ; thou lovest all this, no doubt, as well as thy
brilliant champagne from Rheims, and thy rents,
payable every six months ; and loving these, thou
dwellest upon thy love for thy country.

Speaking conscientiously, can a financier cor-
dially love his country? Where was the country of
the duke of Guise, surnamed Balafre — at Nancy, at
Paris, at Madrid, or at Rome? What country had
your cardinals Balue, Duprat, Lorraine, and Ma-
zarin? Where was the country of Attila situated,
or that of a hundred other heroes of the same kind,
v/ho, although eternally travelling, make themselves
always at home? I should be much obliged to any
one who would acquaint me with the country of
Abraham.

The first who observed that every land is our

Dictionary. 9

country in which we "do well," was, I believe, Eu-
ripides, in his "Phccdo" :

"Qq Tta'/vaxw:; ye T:aTp\z Botyy.ooaa yy^.

The first man, however, who left the place of his
birth to seek a greater share of welfare in another,
said it before him.

SECTION III.

A country is a composition of many families ;
and as a family is commonly supported on the prin-
ciple of self-love, when, by an opposing interest,
the same self-love extends to our town, our province,
or our nation, it is called love of country. The
greater a country becomes, the less we love it ; for
love is weakened by diffusion. It is impossible to
love a family so numerous that all the members can
scarcely be known.

He who is burning with ambition to be edile,
tribune, praetor, consul, or dictator, exclaims that he
loves his country, while he loves only himself.
Every man wishes to possess the power of sleeping
quietly at home, and of preventing any other man
from possessing the power of sending him to sleep
elsewhere. Every one would be certain of his prop-
ert}' and his life. Thus, all forming the same wishes,
the particular becomes the general interest. Tlie
welfare of the republic is spoken of, v/hile all that
is signified is love of self.

It is impossible that a state was ever formed on
earth which was not governed in the first instance

lo Philosophical

as a republic : it is the natural march of human na-
ture. On the discovery of America, all the people
were found divided into republics ; there were but
two kingdoms in all that part of the world. Of a
thousand nations, but two were found subjugated.

It was the same in the ancient world ; all was
republican in Europe before the little kinglings of
Etruria and of Rome. There are yet republics in
Africa: the Hottentots, towards the south, still live
as people are said to have lived in the first ages of
the world — free, equal, without masters, without
subjects, without money, and almost without wants.
The flesh of their sheep feeds them ; they are clothed
with their skins ; huts of wood and clay form their
habitations. They are the most dirty of all men,
but they feel it not, but live and die more easily than
we do. There remain eight republics in Europe
without monarchs — Venice, Holland, Switzerland,
Genoa, Lucca, Ragusa, Geneva, and San Marino.
Poland, Sweden, and England may be regarded as
republics under a king, but Poland is the only one
of them which takes the name.

But which of the two is to be preferred for a
country — a monarchy or a republic? The question
has been agitated for four thousand years. Ask the
rich, and they will tell you an aristocracy ; ask the
people, and they will reply a democracy ; kings alone
prefer royalty. Why, then, is almost all the earth
governed by monarchs? Put that question to the
rats who proposed to hang a bell around the cat's

Dictionary. 1 1

neck. In truth, the genuine reason is, because men
are rarely worthy of governing themselves.

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot we
must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.
That good citizen, the ancient Cato, always gave
it as his opinion, that Carthage must be destroyed :
"Delenda est Carthago." To be a good patriot is
to wish our own country enriched by commerce,
and powerful by arms ; but such is the condition of
mankind, that to wish the greatness of our own
country is often to wish evil to. our neighbors. He
who could bring himself to wish that his country
bhould always remain as it is, would be a citizen of
ixie universe.

CRIMES OR OFFENCES.
Of Time and Place.

A Roman in Egypt very unfortunately killed a
consecrated cat, and the infuriated people punished
this sacrilege by tearing him to pieces. If this Ro-
man had been carried before the tribunal, and the
judges had possessed common sense, he would have
been condemned to ask pardon of the Egyptians and
the cats, and to pay a heavy fine, either in money or
mice. They would have told him that he ought to
respect the follies of the people, since he was not
strong enough to correct them.

The venerable chief justice should have spoken
to him in this manner: "Every country has its
legal impertinences, and its offences of time and

12 Philosophical

place. I£ in your Rome, which has become the sov-
ereign of Europe, Africa, and Asia Minor, you were
to kill a sacred fowl, at the precise time that you
give it grain in order to ascertain the just will of
the gods, you would be severely punished. We be-
lieve that you have only killed our cat accidentally.
The court admonishes you. Go in peace, and be
more circumspect in future."

It seems a very indifferent thing to have a statue
in our hall ; but if, when Octavius, surnamed Au-
gustus, was absolute master, a Roman had placed in
his house the statue of Brutus, he would have been
punished as seditious. If a citizen, under a reign-
ing emperor, had the statue of the competitor to the
empire, it is said that it was accounted a crime of
high treason.

An Englishman, having nothing to do, went to
Rome, where he met Prince Charles Edward at the
house of a cardinal. Pleased at the incident, on his
return he drank in a tavern to the health of Prince
Charles Edward, and was immediately accused of
high treason. But whom did he highly betray in
wishing the prince well? If he had conspired to
place him on the throne, then he would have been
guilty towards the nation ; but I do not see that the
most rigid justice of parliament could require more
from him than to drink four cups to the health of
the house of Hanover, supposing he had drunk two
to the house of Stuart.

Dictionary. 13

Of Crimes of Time and Place, zvhich Ought to Be
Concealed.

It is well known how much our Lady of Loretto
ought to be respected in the March of Ancona.
Three young people happened to be joking on the
house of our lady, which has travelled through the
air to Dalmatia ; which has two or three times
changed its situation, and has only found itself com-
fortable at Loretto. Our three scatterbrains sang
a song at supper, formerly made by a Huguenot,
in ridicule of the translation of the sanfa casa of
Jerusalem to the end of the Adriatic Gulf. A fa-
natic, having heard by chance what passed at their
supper, made strict inquiries, sought witnesses, and
engaged a magistrate to issue a summons. This pro-
ceeding alarmed all consciences. Every one trem-
bled in speaking of it. Chambermaids, vergers, inn-
keepers, lackeys, servants, all heard what was never
said, and saw what was never done : there was an
uproar, a horrible scandal throughout the whole
March of Ancona. It was said, half a league from
Loretto, that these youths had killed our lady ; and
a league farther, that they had thrown the sunta
casa into the sea. In short, they were condemned.
The sentence was, that their hands should be cut off,
and their tongues be torn out; after which they were
to be put to the torture, to learn — at least by signs
— how many couplets there were in the song. Fi-
nally, they were to be burnt to death by a slow fire.

14 Philosophical

An advocate of Milan, who happened to be at
Loretto at this time, asked the principal judge to
what he would have condemned these boys if they
had violated their mother, and afterwards killed and
eaten her? "Oh!" replied the judge, "there is a
great deal of difference; to assassinate and devour
their father and mother is only a crime against
men." "Have you an express law," said the Milan-
ese, "which obliges you to put young people scarcely
out of their nurseries to such a horrible death, for
having indiscreetly made game of the santa casa,
which is contemptuously laughed at all over the
world, except in the March of Ancona?" "No,"
said the judge, "the wisdom of our jurisprudence
leaves all to our discretion." "Very well, you
ought to have discretion enough to remember that
one of these children is the grandson of a general
who has shed his blood for his country, and the
nephew of an amiable and respectable abbess ; the
youth and his companions are giddy boys, who de-
serve paternal correction. You tear citizens from
the state, who might one day serve it; you imbrue
yourself in innocent blood, and are more cruel than
cannibals. You will render yourselves execrable to
posterity. What motive has been powerful enough,
thus to extinguish reason, justice, and humanity in
your minds, and to change you into ferocious
beasts?" The unhappy judge at last replied: "We
have been quarrelling with the clergy of Ancona ;
they accuse us of being too zealous for the liberties

Dictionary. 15

of the Lombard Church, and consequently of having
no reUgion." "I understand, then," said the Milan-
ese, "that you have made yourselves assassins to
appear Christians." At these words the judge fell
to the ground, as if struck by a thunderbolt ; and
his brother judges having been since deprived of
office, they cry out that injustice is done them. They
forget what they have done, and perceive not that
the hand of God is upon them.

For seven persons legally to amuse themselves
by making an eighth perish on a public scaffold by
blows from iron bars ; take a secret and malignant
pleasure in witnessing his torments ; speak of it
afterwards at table with their wives and neighbors ;
for the executioners to perform this office gaily,
and joyously anticipate their reward ; for the pub-
lic to run to this spectacle as to a fair — all this re-
quires that a crime merit this horrid punishment in
the opinion of all well-governed nations, and, as we
here treat of universal humanity, that it is necessary
to the well-being of society. Above all, the actual
perpetration should be demonstrated beyond con-
tradiction. If against a hundred thousand proba-
bilities that the accused be guilty there is a single
one that he is innocent, that alone should balance
all the rest.

Query: Are Tzvo Witnesses Enough to Condemn
a Man to he Hanged?

It has been for a long time imagined, and the
proverb assures us, that two witnesses are enough to

i6 Philosophical

hang a man, with a safe conscience. Another am-
biguity ! The world, then, is to be governed by
equivoques. It is said in St. Matthew that two
or three witnesses will suffice to reconcile two
divided friends; and after this text has criminal
jurisprudence been regulated, so far as to decree
that by divine law a citizen may be condemned to
die on the uniform deposition of two witnesses whc
may be villains? It has been already said that a
crovv'd of according witnesses cannot prove an im-
probable thing when denied by the accused. What,
then, must be done in such a case? Put off the
judgment for a hundred years, like the Athenians!
We shall here relate a striking example of what
passed under our eyes at Lyons. A woman sud-
denly missed her daughter; she ran everywhere in
search of her in vain, and at length suspected a
neighbor of having secreted the girl, and of having
caused her violation. Some weeks after some fish-
ermen found a female drowned, and in a state of
putrefaction, in the Rhone at Condmeux. The
woman of whom we have spoken immediately be-
lieved that it was her daughter. She was persuaded
by the enemies of her neighbor that the latter had
caused the deceased to be dishonored, strangled,
and thrown into the Rhone. She made this accusa-
tion publicly, and the populace repeated it; per-
sons were found who knew the minutest circum-
stances of the crime. The rumor ran through all
the town, and all mouths cried out for vengeance.

Dictionary. 17

There is nothing more common than this in a popu-
lace without judgment; but here follows the most
prodigious part of the affair. This neighbor's own
son, a child of five years and a half old, accused
his mother of having caused the unhappy girl who
was found in the Rhone to be violated before his
eyes, and to be held by five men, while the sixth
committed the crime. He had heard the words
which pronounced her violated ; he painted her at-
titudes ; he saw his mother and these villains
strangle this unfortunate girl after the consumma-
tion of the act. He also saw his mother and the
assassins throw her into a well, draw her out of it,
wrap her up in a cloth, carry her about in triumph,
dance round the corpse, and, at last, throw her into
the Rhone. The judges were obliged to put all the
pretended accomplices deposed against in chains.
The child is again heard, and still maintains, with
the simplicity of his age, all that he had said of
them and of his mother. How could it be imagined
that this child had not spoken the pure truth ? The
crime was not probable, but it was still less so that
a child of the age of five years and a half should
thus calumniate his mother, and repeat with exact-
ness all the circumstances of an abominable and
unheard-of crime ; if he had not been the eye-wit-
ness of it, and been overcome with the force of the
truth, such things would not have been wrung from
him.

Every one expected to feast his eyes on the
Vol. 8—2

1 8 Philosophical

torment of the accused; but what was the end of
this strange criminal process? There was not a
word of truth in the accusation. There was no
girl violated, no young men assembled at the house
of the accused, no murder, not the least transaction
of the sort, nor the least noise. The child had been
suborned; and by whom? Strange, but true, by
two other children, who were the sons of the ac-
cused. He had been on the point of burning his
mother to get some sweetmeats.

The heads of the accusation were clearly in-
compatible. The sage and enlightened court of
judicature, after having yielded to the public fury
so far as to seek every possible testimony for and
against the accused, fully and unanimously acquitted
them. Formerly, perhaps, this innocent prisoner
would have been broken on the wheel, or judicially
burned, for the pleasure of supplying an execution —
the tragedy of the mob.

CRIMINAL.

Criminal Prosecution.
Very innocent actions have been frequently
punished with death. Thus in England, Richard
III., and Edward I\''., effected by the judges the
condemnation of those whom they suspected of dis-
affection. Such are not criminal processes ; they
are assassinations committed by privileged mur-
derers. It is the last degree of abuse to make the
laws the instruments of injustice.

Dictionary. 19

It is said that the Athenians punished with death
every stranger who entered their areopagus or sov-
ereign tribunal. But if this stranger was actuated
by mere curiosity, nothing was more cruel than to
take away his life. It is observed, in "The Spirit
of Laws," that this vigor was exercised, "because
he usurped the rights of a citizen."

But a Frenchman in London who goes to the
House of Commons to hear the debates, does not
aspire to the rights of a citizen. He is received
with politeness. If any splenetic member calls for
the clearing of the house, the traveller clears it by
withdrawing ; he is not hanged. It is probable that,
if the Athenians passed this temporary law, it was
at a time when it was suspected that every stranger
might be a spy, and not from the fear that he would
arrogate to himself the rights of citizenship. Every
Athenian voted in his tribe ; all the individuals in
the tribe knew each other ; no stranger could have
put in his bean.

We speak here only of a real criminal prosecution,
and among the Romans every criminal prosecution
was public. The citizen accused of the most enor-
mous crimes had an advocate who pleaded in his
presence ; who even interrogated the adverse party ;
who investigated everything before his judges. All
the witnesses, for and against, were produced in
open court ; nothing w^as secret. Cicero pleaded
for Milo, who had assassinated Clodius, in the
presence of a thousand citizens. The same Cicero

20 Philosophical

undertook the defence of Roscius Amerinus, ac-
cused of parricide. A single judge did not in secret
examine witnesses, generally consisting of the dregs
of the people, who may be influenced at pleasure.

A Roman citizen was not put to the torture at
the arbitrary order of another Roman citizen, in-
vested with this cruel authority by purchase. That
horrible outrage against humanity was not perpe-
trated on the persons of those who were regarded as
the first of men, but only on those of their slaves,
scarcely regarded as men. It would have been bet-
ter not to have employed torture, even against
slaves.

The method of conducting a criminal prosecu-
tion at Rome accorded with the magnanimity and
liberality of the nation. It is nearly the same in
London. The assistance of an advocate is never
in any case refused. Every one is judged by his
peers. Every citizen has the power, out of thirty-
six jurymen sworn, to challenge twelve without
reasons, twelve with reasons, and, consequently, of
choosing his judges in the remaining twelve. The
judges cannot deviate from or go beyond the law.
No punishment is arbitrary. No judgment can be
executed before it has been reported to the king,
who may, and who ought to bestow pardon on those
who are deserving of it, and to whom the law can-
not extend it. This case frequently occurs. A man
outrageously wronged kills the offender under the
impulse of venial passion ; he is condemned by the

Dictionary. 21

rigor of the law, and saved by that mercy which
ought to be the prerogative of the sovereign.

It deserves particular remark that in the same
country where the laws are as favorable to the ac-
cused as they are terrible for the guilty, not only is
false imprisonment in ordinary cases punished by
heavy damages and severe penalties, but if an illegal
imprisonment has been ordered by a minister of
state, under color of royal authority, that minister
may be condemned to pay damages corresponding
to the imprisonment.

Proceedings in Criminal Cases Among Particular
Nations.

There are countries in which criminal juris-
prudence has been founded on the' canon law, and
even on the practice of the Inquisition, although that
tribunal has long since been held in detestation
there. The people in such countries still remain in
a species of slavery. A citizen prosecuted by the
king's officer is at once immured in a dungeon,
which is in itself a real punishment of perhaps an
innocent man. A single judge, with his clerk, hears
secretly and in succession, every witness sum-
moned.

Let us here merely compare, in a few points, the
criminal procedure of the Romans with that of a
country of the west, which was once a Roman
province. Among the Romans, witnesses were heard
publicly in the presence of the accused, who might

22 Philosophical

reply to them, and examine them himself, or
through an advocate. This practice was noble and
frank ; it breathed of Roman magnanimity. In
France, in many parts of Germany, everything is
done in secret. This practice, established under
Francis L, was authorized by the commissioners,
who, in 1670, drew up the ordinance of Louis XIV.
A mere mistake was the cause of it.

It was imagined, on reading the code "De Testi-
bus" that the words, Testes intrare jiidicii sccretum,
signified that witnesses were examined in secret.
But sccretum here signifies the chambers of the
judge. Intrare secrctuni to express speaking in
secret, would not be Latin. This part of our juris-
prudence was occasioned b}' a solecism. Witnesses
were usually persons of the lowest class, and whom
the judge, when closeted with them, might induce
to say whatever he wished. These witnesses are
examined a second time, always in secret, which is
called, re-examination ; and if, after re-examination,
they retract their depositions, or vary them in es-
sential circumstances, they are punished as false
witnesses. Thus, when an upright man of weak
understanding, and unused to express his ideas, is
conscious that he has stated either too much or too
little — that he has misunderstood the judge, or that
the judge has misunderstood him — and revokes, in
the spirit of justice, what he has advanced through
incaution, he is punished as a felon. He is in this
manner often compelled to persevere in false testi-

Dictionary. 23

mony, from the actual dread of being treated as a
false witness.

The person accused exposes himself by flight to
condemnation, whether the crime has been proved
or not. Some jurisconsults, indeed, have wisely
held that the contumacious person ought not to be
condemned unless the crime were clearly estab-
lished ; but other lawyers have been of a contrary
opinion : they have boldly affirmed that the flight of
the accused was a proof of the crime ; that the con-
tempt which he showed for justice, by refusing to
appear, merited the same chastisement as would
have followed his conviction. Thus, according to
the sect of lawyers which the judge may have em-
braced, an innocent man may be acquitted or con-
demned.

It is a great abuse in jurisprudence that people
often assume as law the reveries and errors — some-
times cruel ones — of men destitute of all authority,
who have laid down their own opinions as laws. In
the reign of Louis XIV., two edicts were published
in France, which apply equally to the whole king-
dom. In the first, which refers to civil causes, the
judges are forbidden to condemn in any suit, on
default, when the demand is not proved ; but in
the second, which regulates criminal proceedings, it
is not laid down that, in the absence of proof, the
accused shall be acquitted. Singular circumstance !
The law declares that a man proceeded against for
a sum of money shall not be condemned, on default.

24 Philosophical

unless the debt be proved; but, in cases affecting
life, the profession is divided with respect to con-
demning a person for contumacy when the crime
is not proved ; and the law does not solve the diffi-
culty.

Example Taken from the Condemnation of a Whole
Family.

The following is an account of what happened
to an unfortunate family, at the time when the mad
fraternities of pretended penitents, in white robes
and masks, had erected, in one of the principal
churches of Toulouse, a superb monument to a
young Protestant, who had destroyed himself, but
who they pretended had been murdered by his
father and mother for having abjured the reformed
religion ; at the time when the whole family of this
Protestant, then revered as a martyr, were in irons,
and a whole population, intoxicated by a supersti-
tion equally senseless and cruel, awaited with de-
vout impatience the delight of seeing five or six per-
sons of unblemished integrity expire on the rack or
at the stake. At this dreadful period there resided
near Castres a respectable man, also of the Protest-
ant religion, of the name of Sirven, who exercised
in that province the profession of a feudist. This
man had three daughters. A woman who superin-
tended the household of the bishop of Castres, pro-
posed to bring to him Sirven's second daughter,
called Elizabeth, in order to make her a Catholic,

Dictionary, 25

apostolical and Roman. She is, in fact, brought.
She is by him secluded with the female Jesuits, de-
nominated the "lady teachers," or the "black ladies."
They instruct her in what they know ; they find her
capacity weak, and impose upon her penances in
order to inculcate doctrines which, with gentleness,
she might have been taught. She becomes imbecile ;
the "black ladies" expel her; she returns to her
parents ; her mother, on making her change her
linen, perceives that her person is covered with con-
tusions ; her imbecility increases ; she becomes
melancholy mad ; she escapes one day from the
house, while her father is some miles distant, pub-
licly occupied in his business, at the seat of a neigh-
boring noblem.an. In short, twenty days after the
flight of Elizabeth, some children find her drowned
in a well, on January 4, 1761.

This was precisely the time when they were pre-
paring to break Calas on the wheel at Toulouse.
The word "parricide," and what is worse, "Hugue-
not," flies from mouth to mouth throughout the
province. It was not doubted that Sirven, his wife,
and his two daughters, had drowned the third, on
a principle of religion.

It was the universal opinion that the Protestant
religion positively required fathers and mothers to
destroy such of their children as might wish to be-
come Catholics. This opinion had taken such deep
root in the minds even of magistrates themselves,
hurried on unfortunately by the public clamor, that

26 Philosophical

the Council and Church of Geneva were obliged to
contradict the fatal error, and to send to the parlia-
ment of Toulouse an attestation upon oath that not
only did Protestants not destroy their children, but
that they were left masters of their whole property
when they quitted their sect for another. It is
known that, notwithstanding this attestation, Calas
was broken on the wheel.

A country magistrate of the name of Londes,
assisted by graduates as sagacious as himself, be-
came eager to make every preparation for follow-
ing up the example which had been furnished at
Toulouse. A village doctor, equally enlightened
with the magistrate, boldly affirmed, on inspecting
the body after the expiration of eighteen days, that
the young woman had been strangled, and after-
wards thrown into the well. On this deposition the
magistrate issued a warrant to apprehend the father,
mother, and the two daughters. The family, justly
terrified at the catastrophe of Calas, and agreeably
to the advice of their friends, betook themselves in-
stantly to flight ; they travelled amidst snow during
a rigorous winter, and, toiling over mountain after
mountain, at length arrived at those of Switzerland.
The daughter, who was married and pregnant, was
prematurely delivered amidst surrounding ice.

The first intelligence this family received, after
reaching a place of safety, was that the father and
mother were condemned to be hanged ; the two
daughters to remain under the gallows during the

Dictionary. 17

execution of their mother, and to be reconductefl
by the executioner out of the territory, under pam
of being hanged if they returned. Such is the lesson
given to contumacy !

This judgment was equally absurd and abomin-
able. If the father, in concert with his wife, had
strangled his daughter, he ought to have been
broken on the wheel, like Calas, and the mother to
have been burned — at least, after having been
strangled — because the practice of breaking women
on the wheel is not yet the custom in the country
of this judge. To limit the punishment to hanging
in such a case, was an acknowledgment that the
crime was not proved, and that in the doubt the
halter was adopted to compromise for want of evi-
dence. This sentence was equally repugnant to law
and reason. The mother died of a broken heart,
and the whole family, their property having been
confiscated, would have perished through want,
unless they had met with assistance.

We stop here to inquire whether there be any
law and any reason that can justify such a sentence?
We ask the judge, "What madness has urged you to
condemn a father and a mother?" "It was because
they fled," he replies. "Miserable wretch, would
you have had them remain to glut your insensate
fury? Of what consequence could it be, whether
they appeared in chains to plead before you, or
whether in a distant land they lifted up their hands
in an appeal to heaven against you ? Could you not

28 Philosophical

see the truth, which ought to have struck you, as
well during their absence? Could you not see that
the father was a league distant from his daughter,
in the midst of twenty persons, when the unfortu-
nate young woman withdrew from her mother's pro-
tection ? Could you be ignorant that the whole fam-
ily were in search of her for twenty days and
nights?" To this you answer by the words, con-
tumacy, contumacy. What ! because a man is ab-
sent, therefore must he be condemned to be hanged,
though his innocence be manifest? It is the juris-
prudence of a fool and a monster. And the life, the
property, and the honor of citizens, are to depend
upon this code of Iroquois !

The Sirven family for more than eight years
dragged on their misfortunes, far from their native
country. At length, the sanguinary superstition
which disgraced Languedoc having been somewhat
mitigated, and men's minds becoming more enlight-
ened, those who had befriended the Sirvens during
their exile, advised them to return and demand
justice from the parliament of Toulouse itself, now
that the blood of Calas no longer smoked, and many
repented of having ever shed it. The Sirvens were
justified.

Erudimini, qui judicuth terrain.
Be instructed, ye judges of the earth.

Dictionary. ap

CROMWELL.

SECTION I.

Croi^iwell is described as a man who was an
impostor all his life. I can scarcely believe it. I
conceive that he was first an enthusiast, and that he
afterwards made his fanaticism instrumental to his
greatness. An ardent novice at twenty often be-
comes an accomplished rogue at forty. In the great
game of human life, men begin with being dupes,
and end in becoming knaves. A statesman engages
as his almoner a monk, entirely made up of the de-
tails of his convent, devout, credulous, awkward,
perfectly new to the world ; he acquires informa-
tion, polish, finesse, and supplants his master.

Cromwell knew not, at first, whether he should
become a churchman or a soldier. He partly be-
came both. In 1622 he made a campaign in the
army of the prince of Orange, Frederick Henry, a
great man and the brother of two great men ; and,
on his return to England, engaged in the service of
Bishop Williams, and was the chaplain of his lord-
ship, while the bishop passed for his wife's gallant.
His principles were puritanical, which led him to
cordially hate a bishop, and not to be partial to king-
ship. He was dismissed from the family of Bishop
Williams because he was a Puritan; and thence
the origin of his fortune. The English Parliament
declared against monarchy and against episcopacy ;
some friends whom he had in that parliament pro-

30 Philosophical

cured him a country living. He might be said only
now to have commenced his existence ; he was more
than forty before he acquired any distinction. He
was master of the sacred Scriptures, disputed on
the authority of priests and deacons, wrote some
bad sermons, and some lampoons ; but he was un-
known. I have seen one of his sermons, which is
insipid enough, and pretty much resembles the hold-
ings forth of the Quakers ; it is impossible to dis-
cover in it any trace of that power by which he
afterwards swayed parliaments. The truth is, he
was better fitted for the State than for the Church.
It was principally in his tone and in his air that his
eloquence consisted. An inclination of that hand
which had gained so many battles, and killed so
many royalists, was more persuasive than the
periods of Cicero. It must be acknowledged that
it was his incomparable valor that brought him into
notice, and which conducted him gradually to the
summit of greatness.

He commenced by throwing himself, as a volun-
teer and a soldier of fortune, into the town of Hull,
besieged by the king. He there performed some
brilliant and valuable services, for which he re-
ceived a gratuity of about six thousand francs from
the parliament. The present, bestowed by parlia-
ment upon an adventurer, made it clear that the
rebel party must prevail. The king could not give
to his general officers what the parliament gave to
volunteers. With money and fanaticism, every-

Dictionary- 31

thing must in the end be mastered. Cromwell was
made colonel. His great talents for war became then
so conspicuous that, when the parliament created
the earl of Manchester general of its forces, Crom-
well was appointed lieutenant-general, without his
having passed through the intervening ranks.
Never did any man appear more worthy of com-
mand. Never was seen more activity and skill, more
daring and more resources, than in Cromwell. He
is wounded at the battle of York, and, while under-
going the first dressing, is informed that his com-
mander, the earl of Manchester, is retreating, and
the battle lost. He hastens to find the earl ; dis-
covers him flying, with some officers ; catches him
by the arm, and, in a firm and dignified tone, he
exclaims: "My lord, you mistake; the enemy has
not taken that road." He reconducts him to the
field of battle ; rallies, during the night, more than
twelve thousand men ; harangues them in the name
of God ; cites Moses, Gideon, and Joshua ; renews
the battle at daybreak against the victorious royalist
army, and completely defeats it. Such a man must
either perish or obtain the mastery. Almost all the
officers of his army were enthusiasts, who carried
the New Testament on their saddle-bows. In the
army, as in the parliament, nothing was spoken of
but Babylon destroyed, building up the worship of
Jerusalem, and breaking the image. Cromwell,
among so many madmen, was no longer one him-
self, and thought it better to govern than to be gov-

32 Philosophical

erned by them. The habit of preaching, as by in-
spiration, remained with him. Figure to yourself a
fakir, who, after putting an iron girdle round his
loins in penance, takes it off to drub the ears of other
fakirs. Such was Cromwell. He becomes as in-
triguing as he was intrepid. He associates with
all the colonels of the army, and thus forms among
the troops a republic which forces the commander
to resign. Another commander is appointed, and
him he disgusts. He governs the army, and through
it he governs the parliament; which he at last com-
pels to make him commander. All this is much;
but the essential point is that he wins all the battles
he fights in England, Scotland, and Ireland; and
wins them, not consulting his own security while
the fight rages, but always charging the enemy, ral-
lying his troops, presenting himself everywhere,
frequently wounded, killing with his own hands
many royalist officers, like the fiercest soldier in the
ranks.

In the midst of this dreadful war Cromwell made
love ; he went, with the Bible under his arxU, to an
assignation with the wife of his major-general,
Lambert. She loved the earl of Holland, who
served in the king's army. Cromwell took him
prisoner in battle, and had the pleasure of bringing
his rival to the block. It v/as his maxim to shed the
blood of every important enemy, in the field or by
the hand of the executioner. He always increased
his power by always daring to abuse it; the pro-

Dictionary. 33

foundness of his plans never lessened his ferocious
impetuosity. He went to the House of Commons,
and drove all the members out, one after another,
making them defile before him. As they passed,
each was obliged to make a profound reverence;
one of them was passing on with his head covered ;
Cromwell seized his hat and threw it down.
"Learn," said he, "to respect me."

When he had outraged all kings by beheading
his own legitimate king, and he began himself to
reign, he sent his portrait to one crowned head,
Christina, queen of Sweden. Marvel, a celebrated
English poet, who wrote excellent Latin verses, ac-
companied his portrait with six lines, in which he
introduces Cromwell himself speaking; Cromwell
corrected these two last verses :

At tibi submittit frontem reverentior mnbra,
Non sunt hi vtiltics ra^ibtes usque truces.

The spirit of the whole six verses may be given
thus:

Les amies a la main fat defendu les lois ;
Uun peuple atidacieiix fai venge la querelle.
Regardez sans fre'jnir cette image fidele :
Mon front n' est pas tou jours I'epouvante des rois,

'Twas mine by arms t'uphold my country's laws;
My sword maintained a lofty people's cause;
With less of fear these faithful outlines trace,
Menace of kings not ahvays clouds my face.

This queen was the first to acknowledge him
after he became protector of the three kingdoms.
Almost all the sovereigns of Europe sent ambassa-
dors to their brother Cromwell — to that domestic of

Vol. 8—-.

34 Philosophical

a bishop, who had just brought to the scaffold a
sovereign related to them. They emulously courted
his alliance. Cardinal Mazarin, in order to please
him, banished from France the two sons of Charles
I., the two grandsons of Henry IV., and the two
cousins-german of Louis XIV. France conquered
Dunkirk for him, and the keys of it were delivered
into his possession. After his death, Louis XIV.
and his whole court went into mourning, except
mademoiselle, who dared to appear in the circle in
colors, and alone to maintain the honor of her race.
No king was ever more absolute than Cromwell.
He would observe "that he had preferred govern-
ing under the name of protector rather than under
that of king, because the English were aware of the
limits of the prerogative of a king of England, but
knew not the extent of that of a protector." This
was knowing mankind, who are governed by
opinion, and whose opinion depends upon a name.
He had conceived a profound contempt for the re-
ligion to which he owed his success. An anecdote,
preserved in the St. John family, sufficiently proves
the slight regard he attached to that instrument
which had produced such mighty effects in his
hands. He was drinking once in company with
Ireton, Fleetwood, and St. John, great grandfather
of the celebrated Lord Bolingbroke ; a bottle of
wine was to be uncorked, and the corkscrew fell
under the table ; they all looked for it, and were
unable to find it. In the meantime a deputation

Dictionary. 35

from the Presbyterian churches awaited in the ante-
chamber, and an usher announced them. "Tell
them," said Cromwell, "that I have retired, and that
I am seeking the Lord." This was the expression
employed by the fanatics for going to prayers.
Having dismissed the troop of divines, he thus ad-
dressed his companions : "Those fellows think we
are seeking the Lord, while we are only seeking a
corkscrew."

There is scarcely any example in Europe of a
man who, from so low a beginning, raised himself
to such eminence. But with all his great talents,
what did he consider absolutely essential to his hap-
piness ? Power he obtained ; but was he happy ?
He had lived in poverty and disquiet till the age of
forty-three; he afterwards plunged into blood,
passed his life in trouble, and died prematurely, at
the age of fifty-seven. With this life let any one
compare that of a Newton, who lived fourscore
years, always tranquil, always honored, always the
light of all thinking beings ; beholding every day
an accession to his fame, his character, his fortune ;
completely free both from care and remorse ; and let
Viim decide whose was the happier lot.

O citras Ji07ninum! O quantum est in rebus inane!
O human cares! O mortal toil how vain!

SECTION II.

Oliver Cromwell was regarded with admiration
by the Puritans and Independents of England ; he
is still their hero. But Richard Cromwell, his son,

36 Philosophical

is the man for me. The first was a fanatic who in
the present day would be hissed down in the House
of Commons, on uttering any one of the uninteUi-
gible absurdities which he deUvered with such con-
fidence before other fanatics who Hstened to him
with open mouth and staring eyes, in the name of
the Lord. If he were to say that they must seek
the Lord, and fight the battles of the Lord — if he
were to introduce the Jewish jargon into the par-
liament of England, to the eternal disgrace of the
human understanding, he would be much more like-
iy to be conducted to Bedlam than to be appointed
the commander of armies.

Brave he unquestionably was — ^and so are wolves ;
there are even some monkeys as fierce as tigers.
From a fanatic he became an able politician ; in other
words, from a wolf he became a fox, and the knave,
craftily mounting from the first steps where the mad
enthusiasm of the times had placed him, to the sum-
mit of greatness, walked over the heads of the pros-
trated fanatics. He reigned, but he lived in the hor-
rors of alarm and had neither cheerful days nor
tranquil nights. The consolations of friendship and
society never approached him. He died prema-
turely, more deserving, beyond a doubt, of public
execution than the monarch whom, from a window
of his own palace, he caused to be led out to the
scaffold.

Richard Cromwell, on the contrary, was gentle
and prudent and refused to keep his father's power

Dictionary. 37

at the expense of the Hves of three or four factious
persons whom he might have sacrificed to his am-
bition. He preferred becoming a private individual
to being an assassin with supreme power. He re-
Hnquished the protectorship without regret, to live
as a subject ; and in the tranquillity of a country life
he enjoyed health and possessed his soul in peace for
ninety years, beloved by his neighbors, to whom he
was a peacemaker and a father.

Say, reader, had you to choose between the des-
tiny of the father and that of the son, which would
you prefer ?

CUISSAGE.

Dion Cassius, that flatterer of Augustus and de-
tractor from Cicero, because Cicero was the friend
of liberty — that dry and diffuse writer and gazet-
teer of popular rumors, Dion Cassius, reports that
certain senators were of opinion that in order to
recompense Caesar for all the evil which he had
brought upon the commonwealth it would be right,
at the age of fifty-seven, to allow him to honor with
his favors all the ladies who took his fancy. Men
are still found who credit this absurdity. Even
the author of the "Spirit of Laws" takes it for a
truth and speaks of it as of a decree which would
have passed the Roman senate but for the modesty
of the dictator, who suspected that he was not alto-
gether prepared for the accession of so much good
fortune. But if the Roman emperors attained not

38 Philosophical

this right by a soiatus-consnltiiin, duly founded
upon a plcbiscitiun, it is very likely that they fully
enjoyed it by the courtesy of the ladies. The Mar-
cus Aureliuses and the Julians, to be sure, exercised
not this right, but all the rest extended it as widely
as they were able.

It is astonishing that in Christian Europe a kind
of feudal law for a long time existed, or at least it
was deemed a customary usage, to regard the vir-
ginity of a female vassal as the property of the lord.
The first night of the nuptials of the daughter of his
villein belonged to him without dispute.

This right was established in the same manner
as that of walking with a falcon on the fist, and of
being saluted with incense at mass. The lords, in-
deed, did not enact that the zvives of their villeins
belonged to them ; they confined themselves to the
daughters, the reason of which is obvious. Girls
are bashful and sometimes might exhibit reluctance.
This, however, yielded at once to the majesty of the
laws, when the condescending baron deemed them
worthy the honor of personally enforcing their prac-
tice.

It is asserted that this curious jurisprudence com-
menced in Scotland, and I willingly believe that the
Scotch lords had a still more absolute power over
their clans than even the German and French barons
over their vassals.

It is undoubted that some abbots and bishops
enjoyed this privilege in their quality of temporal

Dictionary. 39

lords, and it is not very long since that these prel-
ates compounded their prerogative for acknowledg-
ments in money, to which they have just as much
right as to the virginity of the girls.

But let it be well remarked that this excess 01
tyranny was never sanctioned by any public law.
If a lord or a prelate had cited before a regular
tribunal a girl affianced to one of his vassals, in
claim of her quit-rent, he would doubtless have lost
his cause and costs.

Let us seize this occasion to rest assured that no
partially civilized people ever established formal
laws against morals ; I do not believe that a single
instance of it can be furnished. Abuses creep in and
are borne : they pass as customs and travellers mis-
take them for fundamental laws. It is said that in
Asia greasy Mahometan saints march in procession
entirely naked and that devout females crowd round
them to kiss what is not worthy to be named, but
I defy any one to discover a passage in the Koran
which justifies this brutality.

The phallus, which the Egyptians carry in pro-
cession, may be quoted in order to confound me, as
well as the idol Juggernaut, of the Indians. I re-
ply that these ceremonies war no more against mor-
als than circumcision at the age of eight days. In
some of our towns the holy foreskin has been borne
in procession, and it is preserved yet in certain sac-
risties without this piece of drollery causing the
least disturbance in families. Still, I am convinced

40 Philosophical

that no council or act of parliament ever ordained
this homage to the holy foreskin.

I call a public law which deprives me of my prop-
erty, which takes away my wife and gives her to an-
other, a law against morals ; and I am certain that
such a law is impossible. Some travellers maintain
that in Lapland husbands, out of politeness, make an
offer of their wives. Out of still greater politeness,
I believe them; but I nevertheless assert, that they
never found this rule of good manners in the legal
code of Lapland, any more than in the constitutions
of Germany, in the ordinances of the king of France,
or in the ''Statutes at Large" of England, any posi-
tive law, adjudging the right of cuissage to the bar--
ons. Absurd and barbarous laws may be found
everywhere; formal laws against morals nowhere.

CURATE (OF THE COUNTRY).

A CURATE — but why do I say a curate ? — even an
imam, a talapoin, or brahmin ought to have the means
of living decently. The priest in every country
ought to be supported by the altar since he serves
the public. Some fanatic rogue may assert that I
place the curate and the brahmin on the same level
and associate truth with imposture ; but I compare
only the services rendered to society, the labor, and
the recompense.

I maintain that whoever exercises a laborious
function ought to be well paid by his fellow-citizens.
I do not assert that he ought to amass riches, sup

Dictionary. 41

with Lucullus, or be as insolent as Clodius. I pity
the case of a country curate who is obliged to dis-
pute a sheaf of corn with his parishioner ; to plead
against him; to exact from him the tenth of his
peas and beans; to be hated and to hate, and to
consume his miserable life in miserable quarrels
which engross the mind as much as they embitter it.

I still more pity the inconsistent lot of a curate,
whom monks, claiming the great tithes, audaciously
reward with a salary of forty ducats per annum for
undertaking, throughout the year, the labor of visit-
ing for three miles round his abode, by day and by
night, in hail, rain, or snow, the most disagreeable
and often the most useless functions, while the ab-
bot or great tithe-holder drinks his rich wine of
Volney, Beaune, or Chambertin, eats his partridges
and pheasants, sleeps upon his down bed with a fair
neighbor, and builds a palace. The disproportion is
too great.

It has been taken for granted since the days of
Charlemagne that the clerg)'-, besides their own
lands, ought to possess a tenth of the lands of other
people, which tenth is at least a quarter, computing
the expense of culture. To establish this payment
it is claimed on a principle of divine right. Did God
descend on earth to give a quarter of His property
to the abbey of Monte Cassino, to the abbey of St.
Denis, to the abbey of Fulda? l^ot that I know,
but it has been discovered that formerly, in the des-
ert of Ethan, Horeb, and Kadesh Barnea, the Le-

42 Philosophical

vites were favored with forty-eight cities and a tenth
of all which the earth produced besides.

Very well, great tithe-holders, go to Kadesh Bar-
nea and inhabit the forty-eight cities in that unin-
habitable desert. Take the tenth of the flints which
the land produces there, and great good may they do
you. But Abraham having combated for Sodom,
gave a tenth of the spoil to Melchizedek, priest and
king of Salem. Very good, combat you also for
Sodom, but, like Melchizedek, take not from me the
produce of the corn which I have sowed.

In a Christian country containing twelve hundred
thousand square leagues throughout the whole of
the North, in part of Germany, in Holland, and in
Switzerland, the clergy ate paid with money from
the public treasury. The tribunals resound not there
with lawsuits between landlords and priests, between
the great and the little tithe-holders, between the
pastor, plaintiff, and the flock defendants, in conse-
quence of the third Council of the Lateran, of which
the said flocks defendant have never heard a syllable.

The king of Naples this year (1772) has just
abolished tithes in one of his provinces : the clergy
are better paid and the province blesses him. The
Egyptian priests, it is said, claimed not this tenth,
but then, it is observed that they possessed a third
part of the land of Egypt as their own. Oh, stupen-
dous miracle ! oh, thing most difficult to be con-
ceived, that possessing one-third of the country they
did not quickly acquire the other two !

Dictionary. 43

Believe not, dear reader, that the Jews, who were
a stiff-necked people, never complained of the ex-
tortion of the tenths, or tithe. Give yourself the
trouble to consult the Talmud of Babylon, and if
you understand not the Chaldaean, read the transla-
tion, with notes of Gilbert Gaumin, the whole of
which was printed by the care of Fabricius. You
will there peruse the adventure of a poor widow
with the High Priest Aaron, and learn how the
quarrel of this widow became the cause of the quar-
rel of Koran, Dathan, and Abiram, on the one side,
and Aaron on the other.

"A widow possessed only a single sheep which
she wished to shear. Aaron came and took the wool
for himself: 'It belongs to me,' said he, 'according
to the law, thou shalt give the first of the wool to
God.' The widow, in tears, implored the protection
of Koran. Koran applied to Aaron but his entreat-
ies were fruitless. Aaron replies that the wool be-
longs to him. Koran gives some money to the
widow and retires, filled with indignation.

"Some time after, the sheep produces a lamb.
Aaron returns and carries away the lamb. The
widow runs weeping again to Koran, who in vain
implores Aaron. The high priest answers, Tt is
written in the law, every first-born male in thy flock
belongs to God.' He eats the lamb and Koran again
retires in a rage.

"The widow, in despair, kills her sheep ; Aaron
returns once more and takes away the shoulder and

44 Philosophical

the breast. Koran again complains. Aaron replies :
'It is written, thou shalt give unto the priests the
shoulder, the two cheeks, and the maw.'

"The widow could no longer contain her affliction
and said, 'Anathema,' to the sheep, upon which
Aaron observed, 'It is written, all that is anathema
(cursed) in Israel belongs to thee;' and took away
the sheep altogether."

What is not so pleasant, yet very remarkable, is
that in a suit between the clergy of Rheims and the
citizens, this instance from the Talmud was cited
by the advocate of the citizens. Gaumin asserts that
he witnessed it. In the meantime it may be an-
swered that the tithe-holders do not take all from
the people, the tax-gatherers will not suffer it. To
every one his share is just.

CURIOSITY.

Suave, niari niagno turbantibus aequora ventis,
E terra magmim alterius spectare laborefn ;
Non quia vexari qtiemquam est jucioida voluptas,
Sed quibus ipse malis careas, quia cer^iere suave est.
Suave etiam belli certa7nina iuagna tueri
Per campos instructa ttia sine parte pericli ;
Sed nil dulcius est, bene quayn mttnita tenere
Edita doctrina sapientum te^npla serena
Despicere unde qiieas alios, passi^nque videre
Errare, atque viam palantes quaerere vitae,
Certare ingenio, contendere nobilitate,
Noctes atque dies niti praestaftte labore
Ad sunwias etnergere opes, reriimque potiri.
O miseras hoiuinum mentes I O pectora caeca!

'Tis pleasant, when the seas are rough, to stand
And view another's danger, safe at land;
Not 'cause he's troubled, but 'tis sweet to see
Those cares and fears, from which ourselves are free;

Dictionary. 4^

Tis also pleasant to behold from far

How troops engage, secure ourselves from war.

But, above all, 'tis pleasantest to get

The top of high philosophy, and set

On the calm, peaceful, flourishing head of it;

Whence we may view, deep, wondrous deep below,

How poor mistaken mortals wandering go,

Seeking the path to happiness; some aim

At learning, not nobility, or fame;

Others, with cares and dangers vie each hour

To reach the top of wealth and sovereign power.

Blind, wretched man, in what dark paths of strife

We walk this little journey of our life.

— Creech's Lucretius.

I ASK your pardon, Lucretius! I suspect that
you are here as mistaken in morals as you are always
mistaken in physics. In my opinion it is curiosity
alone that induces people to hasten to the shore to
see a vessel in danger of being overwhelmed in a
tempest. The case has happened to myself, and I
solemnly assure you that my pleasure, mingled as
it was with uneasiness and distress, did not at all
arise from reflection, nor originate in any secret
comparison between my own security and the dan-
ger of the unfortunate crew\ I was moved by cu-
riosity and pity.

At the battle of Fontenoy little boys and girls
climbed up the surrounding trees to have a view of
the slaughter. Ladies ordered seats to be placed for
them on a bastion of the city of Liege that they
might enjoy the spectacle at the battle of Rocoux.

When I said, "Happy they who view in peace the
gathering storm," the happiness I had in view con-
sists in tranquillity and the search of truth, and not
in seeing the sufferings of thinking beings, op-

46 Philosophical

pressed by fanatics or hypocrites under persecution
for having sought it.

Could we suppose an angel flying on six beauti-
ful wings from the height of the Empyrean, setting
out to take a view through some loophole of hell
of the torments and contortions of the damned, and
congratulating himself on feeling nothing of their
inconceivable agonies, such an angel would much
resemble the character of Beelzebub.

I know nothing of the nature of angels because
I am only a man ; divines alone are acquainted with
them ; but, as a man, I think, from my own experi-
ence and also from that of all my brother drivellers,
that people do not flock to any spectacle, of what-
ever kind, but from pure curiosity.

This seems to me so true that if the exhibition be
ever so admirable men at last get tired of it. The
Parisian public scarcely go any longer to see "Tar-
tuffe/' the most masterly of Moliere's masterpieces.
Why is it? Because they have gone often ; because
they have it by heart. It is the same with "Andro-
mache."

Perrin Dandin is unfortunately right when he
proposes to the young Isabella to take her to see the
method of "putting to the torture;" it serves, he
says, to pass away an hour or two. If this anticipa-
tion of the execution, frequently more cruel than
the execution itself, were a public spectacle, the
whole city of Toulouse would have rushed in crowds
to behold the venerable Calas twice suffering those

Dictionary. 47

execrable torments, at the instance of the attorney-
general. Penitents, black, white, and gray, married
women, girls, stewards of the floral games, students,
lackeys, female servants, girls of the town, doctors of
the canon law would have been all squeezed to-
gether. At Paris we must have been almost suffo-
cated in order to see the unfortunate General Lally
pass along in a dung cart, wath a six-inch gag in his
mouth.

But if these tragedies of cannibals, which are
sometimes performed before the most frivolous of
nations, and the one most ignorant in general of the
principles of jurisprudence and equity ; if the spec-
tacles, like those of St. Bartholomew, exhibited by
tigers to monkeys and the copies of it on a smaller
scale were renewed every day, men would soon de-
sert such a country ; they would fly from it with
horror; they would abandon forever the infernal
land where such barbarities were common.

When little boys and girls pluck the feathers
from their sparrows it is merely from the impulse of
curiosity, as when they dissect the dresses of their
dolls. It is this passion alone which produces the
immense attendance at public executions. "Strange
eagerness," as some tragic author remarks, "to be-
hold the wretched."

I remember being in Paris when Damiens suf-
fered a death the most elaborate and frightful that
can be conceived. All the windows in the city which
bore upon the spot were engaged at a high price by

4S Philosophical

ladies, not one of whom, assuredly, made the con-
soling reflection that her own breasts were not torn
by pincers ; that melted lead and boiling pitch were
not poured upon wounds of her own, and that her
own limbs, dislocated and bleeding, were not drawn
asunder by four horses. One of the executioners
judged more correctly than Lucretius, for, when
one of the academicians of Paris tried to get within
the enclosure to examine what was passing more
closely, and was forced back by one of the guards,
"Let the gentleman go in," said he, "he is an ama-
teur." That is to say, he is inquisitive; it is not
through malice that he comes here ; it is not from
any reflex consideration of self to revel in the pleas-
ure of not being himself quartered ; it is only from
curiosity, as men go to see experiments in natural
philosophy.

Curiosity is natural to man, to monkeys, and to
little dogs. Take a little dog with you in your car-
riage, he Avill continually be putting up his paws
against the door to see what is passing. A monke}"
searches everywhere, and has the air of examining
everything. As to men, you know how they are
constituted: Rome, London, Paris, all pass theii
time in inquiring what's the news?

CUSTOMS— USAGES.

There are, it is said, one hundred and forty-four

customs in France which possess the force of law.

These laws are almost all different in different

Dictionary. 49

places. A man that travels in this country changes
his law almost as often as he changes his horses. The
majority of these customs were not reduced to writ-
ing until the time of Charles VII., the reason of
which probably was that few people knew how to
write. They then copied a part of the customs of
a part of Ponthieu, but this great work was not
aided by the Picards until Charles VIII. There
were but sixteen digests in the time of Louis XII.,
but our jurisprudence is so improved there are now
but few customs which have not a variety of com-
mentators, all of whom are of different opinions.
There are already twenty-six upon the customs of
Paris. The judges know not which to prefer, but,
to put them at their ease the custom of Paris has
been just turned into verse. It was in this manner
that the Delphian pythoness of old declared her
oracles.

Weights and measures differ as much as customs,
so that which is correct in the faubourg of Mont-
martre, is otherwise in the abbey of St. Denis. The
Lord pity us!

CYRUS.

Many learned men, and Rollin among the num-
ber, in an age in which reason is cultivated, have as-
sured us that Javan, who is supposed to be the father
of the Greeks, was the grandson of Noah. I be-
lieve it precisely as I believe that Persius was the
founder of the kingdom of Persia and Niger of

Vol. 8—4

50 Philosophical

Nigritia. The only thing which grieves me is that
the Greeks have never known anything of Noah, the
venerable author of their race. I have elsewhere
noted my astonishment and chagrin that our father
Adam should be absolutely unknown to everybody
from Japan to the Strait of Le Maire, except to a
small people to whom he was known too late. The
science of genealogy is doubtless in the highest de-
gree certain, but exceedingly difficult.

It is neither upon Javan, upon Noah, nor upon
Adam that my doubts fall at present; it is upon
Cyrus, and I seek not which of the fables in regard
to him is preferable, that of Herodotus, of Ctesias,
of Xenophon, of Diodorus, or of Justin, all of which
contradict one another. Neither do I ask why it is
obstinately determined to give the name of Cyrus to
a barbarian called Khosrou, and those of Cyropolis
and Persepolis to cities that never bore them.

I drop all that has been said of the grand Cyrus,
including the romance of that name, and the travels
which the Scottish Ramsay made him undertake,
and simply inquire into some instructions of his to
the Jews, of which that people make mention.

I remark, in the first place, that no author has
said a word of the Jews in the history of Cyrus, and
that the Jews alone venture to notice themselves, in
speaking of this prince.

They resemble, in some degree, certain people,
who, alluding to individuals of a rank superior to
their own say, we know the gentlemen but the gen-

Dictionary. 51

tlemen know not us. It is the same with Alexander
in the narratives of the Jews. No historian of Alex-
ander has mixed up his name with that of the Jews,
but Josephus fails not to assert that Alexander came
to pay his respects at Jerusalem ; that he wor-
shipped, I know not what Jewish pontiff, called
Jaddus, who had formerly predicted to him the con-
quest of Persia in a dream. Petty people are often
visionary in this way : the great dream less of their
greatness.

When Tarik conquered Spain the vanquished said
they had foretold it. They would have said the same
thing to Genghis, to Tamerlane, and to Mahomet II.

God forbid that I should compare the Jewish
prophets to the predictors of good fortune, who pay
their court to conquerors by foretelling them that
which has come to pass. I merely observe that the
Jews produce some testimony from their nation in
respect to the actions of Cyrus about one hundred
and sixty years before he was born.

It is said, in the forty-fifth chapter of Isaiah,
"Thus saith the Lord to His anointed — His Christ
— Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden to subdue
nations before him, and I will loosen the loins of
kings to open before him the two-leaved gates, and
the gates shall not be shut. I will go before thee
and make the crooked places straight ; I will break in
pieces the gates of brass and cut in sunder the bars
of iron. And I will give thee the treasures of dark-
ness and hidden riches of secret places that thou

52 Philosophical

mayest know that I the Lord, who call thee by thy
name, am the God of Israel," etc.

Some learned men have scarcely been abJe to di-
gest the fact of the Lord honoring with the name of
His Christ an idolater of the religion of Zoroaster,
They even dare to say that the Jews, in the manne?
of all the weak who flatter the powerful, invented
predictions in favor of Cyrus.

These learned persons respect Daniel no more
than Isaiah, but treat all the prophecies attributed to
the latter wath similar contempt to that manifested
by St. Jerome for the adventures of Susannah, of
Bel and the Dragon, and of the three children in the
fiery furnace.

The sages in question seem not to be penetrated
w'ith sufficient esteem for the prophets. Many of
them even pretend that to see clearly the future is
metaphysically impossible. To see that which is
not, say they, is a contradiction in terms, and as the
future exists not, it consequently cannot be seen.
They add that frauds of this nature abound in all
nations, and, finally, that everything is to be doubted
which is recorded in ancient history.

They observe that if there was ever a formal
prophecy it is that of the discovery of America in the
tragedy of Seneca:

Venient annis
Scecula seris qutbus oceanus
Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens
Pateat tellus, ....

A time may arrive when oce^an will loosen the

Dictionary. 53

chains of nature and lay open a vast world. The
four stars of the southern pole are advanced still
more clearly in Dante, yet no one takes either Seneca
or Dante for diviners.

As to Cyrus, it is difficult to know whether he
died nobly or had his head cut off by Tomyris, but
I am anxious, I confess, that the learned men may
be right who claim the head of Cyrus was cut off.
It is not amiss that these illustrious robbers on the
highway of nations who pillage and deluge the earth
with blood, should be occasionally chastised.

Cyrus has always been the subject of remark,
Xenophon began and, unfortunately, Ramsay ended.
Lastly, to show the sad fate which sometimes attends
heroes, Danchet has made him the subject of a
tragedy.

This tragedy is entirely unknown ; the "Cyro-
psedia" of Xenophon is more popular because it is
in Greek. The "Travels of Cyrus" are less so, al-
though printed in French and English, and wonder-
fully erudite.

The pleasantry of the romance entitled "The
Travels of Cyrus," consists in its discovery of a
Messiah everywhere — at Memphis, at Babylon, at
Ecbatana, and at Tyre, as at Jerusalem, and as much
in Plato as in the gospel. The author having been a
Quaker, an Anabaptist, an Anglican, and a Presby-
terian, had finally become a Fenclonist at Cambray,
under the illustrious author of "Telemachus." Hav-
ing since been made preceptor to the child of a great

54 Philosophical

nobleman, he thought himself born to instruct and
govern the universe, and, in consequence, gives les-
sons to Cyrus in order to render him at once the best
king and the most orthodox theologian in existence.
These two rare qualities appear to lack the grace of
congruity.

Ramsay leads his pupil to the school of Zoroas-
ter and then to that of the young Jew, Daniel, the
greatest philosopher who ever existed. He not only
explained dreams, which is the acme of human
science, but discovered and interpreted even such
as had been forgotten, which none but he could ever
accomplish. It might be expected that Daniel would
present the beautiful Susannah to the prince, it be-
ing in the natural manner of romance, but he did
nothing of the kind.

Cyrus, in return, has some very long conversa-
tions with Nebuchadnezzar while he was an ox, dur-
ing which transformation Ramsay makes Nebuchad-
nezzar ruminate like a profound theologian.

How astonishing that the prince for whom this
work was composed preferred the chase and the
opera to perusing it !

DANTE.

You wish to become acquainted with Dante. The
Italians call him divine, but it is a mysterious di-
vinity ; few men understand his oracles, and al-
though there are commentators, that may be an addi-

Dictionary. ^^

tional reason why he is little comprehended. His
reputation will last because he is little read. Twenty
pointed things in him are known by rote, which spare
people the trouble of being acquainted with the re-
mainder.

The divine Dante was an unfortunate person.
Imagine not that he was divine in his own day ; no
one is a prophet at home. It is true he was a prior
— not a prior of monks, but a prior of Florence,
that is to say, one of its senators.

He was born in 1260, when the arts began to
flourish in his native land. Florence, like Athens,
abounded in greatness, wit, levity, inconstancy, and
faction. The white faction was in great credit ; it
was called after a Signora Bianca. The opposing
party was called the blacks, in contradistinction.
These two parties sufficed not for the Florentines ;
they had also Guelphs and Ghibellines. The greater
part of the whites were Ghibellines, attached to the
party of the emperors ; the blacks, on the other hand,
sided with the Guelphs, the partisans of the popes.

All these factions loved liberty, but did all they
could to destroy it. Pope Boniface VIII. wished
to profit by these divisions in order to annihilate the
power of the emperors in Italy. He declared Charles
de Valois, brother of Philip the Fair, king of France,
his vicar in Italy. The vicar came well armed and
chased away the whites and the Ghibellines and
made himself detested by blacks and Guelphs. Dante
was a white and a Ghibelline; he was driven away

^6 Philosophical

among the first and his house razed to the ground.
We may judge if he could be for the remainder of
his life, favorable towards the French interest and
to the popes. It is said, however, that he took a
journey to Paris, and, to relieve his chagrin turned
theologian and disputed vigorously in the schools.
It is added that the emperor Henry VIII. did noth-
ing for him, Ghibelline as he was, and that he re-
paired to Frederick of Aragon, king of Sicily, and
returned as poor as he went. He subsequently died
in poverty at Ravenna at the age of fifty-six. It was
during these various peregrinations that he com-
posed his divine comedy of "Hell, Purgatory, and
Paradise."'

[Voltaire here enters into a description of the
"Inferno/' which it is unnecessary to insert, after
the various translations into English. The conclu-
sion, however, exhibiting our author's usual vivacity,
is retained.]

Is all this in the comic style ? No. In the heroic
manner? No. What then is the taste of this poem?
An exceedingly wild one, but it contains verses so
happy and piquant that it has not lain dormant for
four centuries and never will be laid aside. A poem,
moreover, which puts popes into hell excites atten-
tion, and the sagacity of commentators is exhausted
in correctly ascertaining who it is that Dante has
damned, it being, of course, of the first consequence
not to be deceived in a matter so important.

A chair and a lecture have been founded with a

Dictionary. ^7

view to the exposition of this classic author. You
ask me why the Inquisition acquiesces. I reply that
in Italy the Inquisition understands raillery and
knows that raillery in verse never does any harm.

DAVID.

We are called upon to reverence David as a
prophet, as a king, as the ancestor of the holy spouse
of Mary, as a man who merited the mercy of God
from his penitence.

I will boldly assert that the article on "David,"
which raised up so many enemies to Bayle, the first
author of a dictionary of facts and of reasonings, de-
serves not the strange noise which was made about
it. It was not David that people were anxious to de-
fend, but Bayle whom they were solicitous to de-
stroy. Certain preachers of Holland, his mortal
enemies, were so far blinded by their enmity as to
blame him for having praised popes whom he
thought meritorious, and for having refuted the un-
just calumny with which they had been assailed.

This absurd and shameful piece of injustice was
signed by a dozen theologians on Dec. 20, 1698, in
the same consistory in which they pretended to take
up the defence of King David. A great proof that
the condemnation of Bayle arose from personal feel-
ing is supplied by the fact of that which happened
in 1 761, to Mr. Peter Anet, in London. The doctors
Chandler and Palmer, having delivered funeral ser-

58 Philosophical

mons on the death of King George II., in which they
compared him to King David, Mr. Anet, who did
not regard this comparison as honorable to the de-
ceased monarch, published his famous dissertation
entitled, "The History of the Man after God's Own
Heart." In that work he makes it clear that George
II., a king much more powerful than David, did not
fall into the errors of the Jewish sovereign, and
consequently could not display the penitence which
was the origin of the comparison.

He follows, step by step, the Books of Kings, ex-
amines the conduct of David with more severity than
Bayle, and on it founds an opinion that the Holy
Spirit does not praise actions of the nature of those
attributed to David, The English author, in fact,
judges the king of Judah upon the notions of jus-
tice and injustice which prevail at the present time.

He cannot approve of the assembly of a band of
robbers by David to the amount of four hundred;
of his being armed with the sword of Goliath, by the
high priest Abimelech, from whom he received hal-
lowed bread.

He could not think well of the expedition of
David against the farmer, Nabal, in order to destroy
his abode with fire and sword, because Nabal re-
fused contributions to his troop of robbers ; or of the
death of Nabal a few days afterwards, whose widow
David immediately espoused.

He condemned his conduct to King Achish, the
possessor of a few villages in the district of Gath.

Dictionary. 59

David, at the head of five or six hundred banditti,
made inroads upon the aUies of his benefactor
Achish. He pillaged the whole of them, massacred
all the inhabitants, men, women, and children at the
breast. And why the children at the breast? For
fear, says the text, these children should carry the
news to King Achish, who was deceived into a belief
that these expeditions were undertaken against the
Israelites, by an absolute lie on the part of David.

Again, Saul loses a battle and wishes his armor-
bearer to slay him, who refuses ; he wounds himself,
but not effectually, and at his own desire a young
man despatches him, who, carrying the news to
David, is massacred for his pains.

Ishbosheth succeeds his father, Saul, and David
makes war upon him. Finally Ishbosheth is assassi-
nated.

David, possessed of the sole dominion, surprised
the little town or village of Rabbah and put all the
inhabitants to death by the most extraordinary de-
vices— sawing them asunder, destroying them with
harrows and axes of iron, and burning them in
brick-kilns.

After these expeditions there was a famine in the
country for three years. In fact, from this mode of
making war, countries must necessarily be badly cul-
tivated. The Lord was consulted as to the causes
of the famine. The answer was easy. In a country
which produces corn with difficulty, when laborers
are baked in brick-kilns and sawed into pieces, few

6o Philosophical

people remain to cultivate the earth. The Lord,
however, replied that it was because Saul had for-
merly slain some Gibeonites.

What is David's speedy remedy? He assembles
the Gibeonites, informs them that Saul had com-
mitted a great sin in making war upon them, and
that Saul not being like him, a man after God's own
heart, it would be proper to punish him in his poster-
ity. He therefore makes them a present of seven
grandsons of Saul to be hanged, who were accord-
ingly hanged because there had been a famine.

Mr. Anet is so just as not to insist upon the adul-
tery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband,
as these crimes were pardoned in consequence of the
repentance of David. They were horrible and abom-
inable, but being remitted by the Lord, the English
author also absolves from them.

No one complained in England of the author, and
the parliament took little interest in the history of
a kinglet of a petty district in Syria.

Let justice be done to Father Calmet; he has
kept within bounds in his dictionary of the Bible,
in the article on "David." "We pretend not," said
he, "to approve of the conduct of David, but it is
to be believed that this excess of cruelty was com-
mitted before his repentance on the score of Bath-
sheba." Possibly he repented of all his crimes at the
same time, which were sufficiently numerous.

Let us here ask what appears to us to be an im-
portant question. May we not exhibit a portion of

Dictionary. 6t

contempt in the article on "David," and treat of his
person and glory with the respect due to the sacred
books? It is to the interest of mankind that crime
should in no case be sanctified. What signifies what
he is called, who massacres the wives and children
of his allies; who hangs the grandchildren of his
king; who saws his unhappy captives in two, tears
them to pieces with harrows, or burns them in brick-
kilns? These actions we judge, and not the letters
which compose the name of the criminal. His name
neither augments nor diminishes the criminality.

The more David is revered after his reconciliation
with God, the more are his previous qualities con-
demnable.

If a young peasant, in searching after she-asses
finds a kingdom it is no common affair. If another
peasant cures his king of insanity by a tune on the
harp that is still more extraordinary. But when this
petty player on the harp becomes king because he
meets a village priest in secret, who pours a bottle
of olive oil on his head, the affair is more marvellous
still,

I know nothing either of the writers of these
marvels, or of the time in which they were written,
but I am certain that it was neither Polybius nor
Tacitus.

I shall not speak here of the murder of Uriah,
and of the adultery with Bathsheba, these facts be-
ing sufficiently well known. The ways of God are
not the ways of men, since He permitted the descent

62 Philosophical

of Jesus Christ from this very Bathsheba, every-
thing being rendered pure by so holy a mystery.

I ask not now how Jurieu had the audacity to
persecute the wise Bayle for not approving all the
actions of the good King David. I only inquire why
a man like Jurieu is suffered to molest a man like
Bayle.

DECRETALS.

These are letters of the popes which regulate
points of doctrine and discipline and which have the
force of law in the Latin church.

Besides the genuine ones collected by Denis le
Petit, there is a collection of false ones, the author of
which, as well as the date, is unknown. It was an
archbishop of Mentz called Riculphus who cir-
culated it in France about the end of the eighth cen-
tury; he had also brought to Worms an epistle of
Pope Gregory, which had never before been heard
of, but no vestige of the latter is at present remain-
ing, while the false decretals, as we shall see, have
met with the greatest success for eight centuries.

This collection bears the name of Isidore Merca-
tor, and comprehends an infinite number of decrees
falsely ascribed to the popes, from Clement I. down
to Siricius. The false donation of Constantine ; the
Council of Rome under Sylvester; the letter of
Athanasius to Mark; that of Anastasius to the
bishops of Germany and Burgundy ; that of Sixtus
III. to the Orientals; that of Leo. I. relating to the

Dictionary. 6^

privileges of the rural bishops ; that of John I. to
the archbishop Zachariah; one of Boniface II. to
Eulalia of Alexandria; one of John III. to the
bishops of France and Burgundy; one of Gregory,
containing a privilege of the monastery of St. Me-
dard ; one from the same to Felix, bishop of Mes-
sina, and many others.

The object of the author was to extend the au-
thority of the pope and the bishops. With this view,
he lays it down as a principle that they can be defi-
nitely judged only by the pope, and he often repeats
this maxim that not only every bishop but every
priest, and, generally, every oppressed individual
may, in any stage of a cause, appeal directly to the
pope. He likewise considers it as an incontestable
principle that no council, not even a provincial one,
may be held without the permission of the pope.

These decretals, favoring the impunity of bishops,
and still more the ambitious pretensions of the
popes, were eagerly adopted by them both. In 86i,
Rotade, bishop of Soissons, being deprived of epis-
copal communion in a provincial council on account
of disobedience, appeals to the pope. Hincmar of
Rheims, his metropolitan, notwithstanding his ap-
peal, deposes him in another council under the pre-
text that he had afterwards renounced it, and sub-
mitted himself to the judgment of the bishops.

Pope Nicholas I. being informed of this affair,
wrote to Hincmar, and blamed his proceedings.
"You ought," says he, "to honor the memory of St.

64 Philosophical

Peter, and await our judgment, even although Ro-
tade had not appealed." And in another letter on
the same matter, he threatens Hincmar with excom-
munication, if he does not restore Rotade. That
pope did more. Rotade having arrived at Rome, he
declared him acquitted in a council held on Christ-
mas eve, 864; and dismissed him to his see with
letters. That which he addressed to all the bishops
is worthy of notice, and is as follows :

"What you say is absurd, that Rotade, after hav-
ing appealed to the holy see, changed his language
and submitted himself anew to your judgment.
Even although he had done so, it would have been
your duty to set him right, and teach him that an
appeal never lies from a superior judge to an in-
ferior one. But even although he had not appealed
to the holy see, you ought by no means to depose a
bishop without our participation, in prejudice of so
many decretals of our predecessors ; for, if it be by
their judgment that the writings of other doctors are
approved or rejected, how much more should that
be respected which they have themselves written, to
decide on points of doctrine and discipline. Some
tell you that these decretals are not in the book of
canons; yet those same persons, when they find
them favorable to their designs, use both without
distinction, and reject them only to lessen the power
of the holy see. If the decretals of the ancient popes
are to be rejected because they are not contained in
the book of canons, the writings of St. Gregory,

Dictionary. 6§

and the rest of the fathers, must, on the same prin-
ciple, be rejected also, and even the Holy Scriptures
themselves."

"You say," the pope continues, "that judgments
upon bishops are not among the higher causes ; we
maintain that they are high in proportion as bishops
hold a high rank in the church. Will you assert that
it is only metropolitan affairs which constitute the
higher causes ? But metropolitans are not of a dif-
ferent order from bishops, and we do not demand
different witnesses or judges in the one case, from
what are usual in the other; we therefore require
that causes which involve either should be reserved
for us. And, finally, can anyone be found so utterly
unreasonable as to say that all other churches ought
to preserve their privileges, and that the Roman
Church alone should lose hers ?" He concludes with
ordering them to receive and replace Rotade.

Pope Adrian, the successor of Nicholas I., seems
to have been no less zealous in a similar case relating
to Hincmar of Laon. That prelate had rendered
himself hateful both to the clergy and people of his
diocese, by various acts of injustice and violence.
Having been accused before the Council of Verberie
— at which Hincmar of Rheims. his uncle and met-
ropolitan, presided — he appealed to the pope, and
demanded permission to go to Rome. This was re-
fused him. The process against him was merely
suspended, and the affair went no farther. But

upon new matters of complaint brought against him
Vol. 8—5

66 Philosophical

by Charles the Bald and Hincmar of Rheims, he was
cited at first before the Council of Attigny, where he
appeared, and soon afterwards fled; and then be-
fore the Council of Douzy, where he renewed his ap-
peal, and was deposed. The council wrote to the
pope a synodal letter, on Sept. 6, 871, to request of
him a confirmation of the acts which they sent him ;
but Adrian, far from acquiescing in the judgment
of the council, expressed in the strongest terms his
disapprobation of the condemnation of Hincmar;
maintaining that, since Hincmar declared before the
council that he appealed to the holy see, they ought
not to have pronounced any sentence of condemna
tion upon him. Such were the terms used by that
pope, in his letter to the bishops of the council, as
also in that which he wrote to the king.

The following is the vigorous answer senl by
Charles to Adrian : "Your letters say, 'We will and
ordain, by apostolical authority, that Hincmar of
Laon shall come to Rome and present himself before
us, resting upon your supremacy.'

"We wonder where the writer of this letter dis-
covered that a king, whose duty it is to chastise the
guilty and be the avenger of crimes, should send to
Rome a criminal convicted according to legal forms,
and more especially one who, before his deposition,
was found guilty, in three councils, of enterprises
against the public peace ; and who, after his depo-
sition, persisted in his disobedience.

"We are compelled further to tell you, that we,

Dictionary. 67

kings of France, born of a royal race, have never yet
passed for the deputies of bishops, but for sov-
ereigns of the earth. And, as St. Leon and the
Roman council have said, kings and emperors,
whom God has appointed to govern the world, have
permitted bishops to regulate their affairs according
to their ordinances, but they have never been the
stewards of bishops ; and if you search the records
of your predecessors, you will not find that they
have ever written to persons in our exalted situation
as you have done in the present instance."

He then adduces two letters of St. Gregory, to
show with what modesty he wrote, not only to the
kings of France, but to the exarchs of Italy.
"Finally," he concludes, "I beg that you will never
more send to me, or to the bishops of my kingdom,
similar letters, if you wish that we should give to
what you write that honor and respect which we
would willingly grant it." The bishops of the Coun-
cil of Douzy answered the pope nearly in the same
strain ; and, although we have not the entire letter,
it appears that their object in it was to prove that
Hincmar's appeal ought not to be decided at Rome,
but in France, by judges delegated conformably to
the canons of the Council of Sardis.

These examples are sufficient to show how the
popes extended their jurisdiction by the instru-
mentality of these false decretals : and although
Hincmar of Rheims objected to Adrian, that, not
being included in the book of canons, they could not

68 Philosophical

subvert the discipline established by the canons —
which occasioned his being accused, before Pope
John VIII., of not admitting the decretals of the
popes — he constantly cited these decretals as author-
ities, in his letters and other writings, and his ex-
ample was followed by many bishops. At first,
those only were admitted which were not contrary
to the more recent canons, and afterwards there was
less and less scruple.

The councils themselves made use of them.
Thus, in that of Rhelms, held in 992, the bishops
availed themselves of the decretals of Anacletus, of
Julius, of Damasus, and other popes, in the cause of
Arnoul. Succeeding councils imitated that of
Rheims. The popes Gregory VII., Urban II., Pas-
'cal II., Urban III., and Alexander III. supported
the maxims they found in them, persuaded that they
constituted the discipline of the flourishing age of
the church. Finally, the compilers of the canons — •
Bouchard of Worms, Yves of Chartres, and Gra-
tian — introduced them into their collection. After
they became publicly taught in the schools, and com-
mented upon, all the polemical and scholastic di-
vines, and all the expositors of the canon law,
eagerly laid hold of these false decretals to confirm
the Catholic dogmas, or to establish points of dis-
cipline, and scattered them profusely through their
works.

It was not till the sixteenth century that the first
suspicions of their authenticity were excited. Eras-

Dictionary. 69

mus, and many others with him, called them in
question upon the following grounds :

1. The decretals contained in the collection of
Isidore are not in that of Denis le Petit, who cited
none of the decretals of the popes before the time
of Siricius. Yet he informs us that he took extreme
care in collecting them. They could not, therefore,
have escaped him, if they had existed in the ar-
chives of the see of Rome, where he resided. If they
were unknown to the holy see, to which they were
favorable, they were so to the whole church. The
fathers and councils of the first eight centuries have
made no mention of them. But how can this univer-
sal silence be reconciled with their authenticity?

2. These decretals do not all correspond with
the state of things existing at the time in which they
are supposed to have been written. Not a word is
said of the heresies of the three first centuries, nor
of other ecclesiastical affairs with which the genuine
works of the same period are filled. This proves
that they were fabricated afterwards.

3. Their dates are almost always false. Their
author generally follows the chronology of the pon-
tifical book, which, by Baronius's ow^n confession, is
very incorrect. This is a presumptive evidence that
the collection was not composed till after the pon-
tifical book.

4. These decretals, in all the citations of Scrip-
ture passages which they contain, use the version
known by the name of "Vulgate," made, or at least

70 Philosophical

revised, by St. Jerome. They are, therefore, of later
date than St. Jerome.

Finally, they are all written in the same style,
which is very barbarous ; and, in that respect, corre-
sponding to the ignorance of the eighth century :
but it is not by any means probable that all the dif-
ferent popes, whose names they bear, afifected that
uniformity of style. It may be concluded with con-
fidence, that all the decretals are from the same
hand.

Besides these general reasons, each of the docu-
ments which form Isidore's collection carries with
it marks of forgery peculiar to itself, and none of
which have escaped the keen criticism of David
Blondel, to whom we are principally indebted for
the light thrown at the present day on this compila-
tion, now no longer known but as **The False De-
cretals" ; but the usages introduced in consequence
of it exist not the less through a considerable portion
of Europe.

DELUGE (UNIVERSAL).

We begin with observing that we are believers
in the universal deluge, because it is recorded in the
holy Hebrew Scriptures transmitted to Christians.
We consider it as a miracle :

1. Because all the facts by which God conde-
scends to interfere in the sacred books are so many
miracles.

2. Because the sea could not rise fifteen cubits.

Dictionary. 71

or one-and-twenty standard feet and a half, above
the highest mountains, without leaving its bed dry,
and, at the same time, violating all the laws of
gravity and the equilibrium of fluids, which would
evidently require a miracle.

3. Because, even although it might rise to the
height mentioned, the ark could not have contained,
according to known physical laws, all the living
things of the earth, together with their food, for so
long a time ; considering that lions, tigers, panthers,
leopards, ounces, rhinoceroses, bears, wolves, hye-
nas, eagles, hawks, kites, vultures, falcons, and all
carnivorous animals, which feed on flesh alone,
would have died of hunger, even after having de-
voured all the other species.

There was printed some time ago, in an appendix
to Pascal's "Thoughts," a dissertation of a mer-
chant of Rouen, called Le Peletier, in which he pro-
poses a plan for building a vessel in which all kinds
of animals might be included and maintained for the
space of a year. It is clear that this merchant never
superintended even a poultry-yard. We cannot but
look upon M. Le Peletier, the architect of the ark,
as a visionary, who knew nothing about menageries ;
and upon the deluge as an adorable miracle, fearful,
and incomprehensible to the feeble reason of M. Le
Peletier, as well as to our own.

4. Because the physical impossibility of a uni-
versal deluge, by natural means, can be strictly dem-
onstrated. The demonstration is as follows .' All

7tt Philosophical

the seas cover half the globe. A common measure
of their depths near the shores, and in the open
ocean, is assumed to be five hundred feet.

In order that they might cover both hemispheres
to the depth of five hundred feet, not only would an
ocean of that depth be necessary over all the land,
but a new sea would, in addition, be required to
envelop the ocean at present existing, without which
the laws of hydrostatics would occasion the disper-
sion of that other new mass of water five hundred
feet deep, which should remain covering the land.
Thus, then, two new oceans are requisite to cover
the terraqueous globe merely to the depth of five
hundred feet.

Supposing the mountains to be only twenty thou-
sand feet high, forty oceans, each five hundred feet
in height, would be required to accumulate on each
other, merely in order to equal the height of the
mountains. Every successive ocean would contain
all the others, and the last of them all would have a
circumference containing forty times that of the
first.

In order to form this mass of water, it would be
necessary to create it out of nothing. In order to
withdraw it, it would be necessary to annihilate it.
The event of the deluge, then, is a double miracle,
and the greatest that has ever manifested the powe>
of the eternal Sovereign of all v/orlds.

We are exceedingly surprised that some learned
men have attributed to this deluge some small shell."

Dictionary. 73

found in many parts of our continent. We are still
more surprised at what we find under the article on
"Deluge," in the grand "Encyclopaedia." An author
is quoted in it, who says things so very profound
that they may be considered as chimerical. This is
the first characteristic of Pluche. He proves the
possibility of the deluge by the history of the giants
who made war against the gods!

Briareus, according to him, is clearly the deluge,
for it signifies "the loss of serenity" : and in what
language does it signify this loss ? — in Hebrew. But
Briareus is a Greek word, which means "robust" : it
is not a Hebrew word. Even if, by chance, it had
been so, we should beware of imitating Bochart,
who derives so many Greek, Latin, and even French
words from the Hebrew idiom. The Greeks cer-
tainly knew no more of the Jewish idiom than of the
language of the Chinese.

The giant Othus is also in Hebrew, according to
Pluche, "the derangement of the seasons." But it is
also a Greek word, which does not signify anything,
at least, that I know ; and even if it did, what, let
me ask, could it have to do with the Hebrew ?

Porphyrion is "a shaking of the earth," in He-
brew ; but in Greek, it is porphyry. This has noth-
ing to do with the deluge.

Mimos is "a great rain" ; for once, he does men-
tion a name which may bear upon the deluge. But
in Greek mimos means mimic, comedian. There are
no means of tracing the deluge of such an origin.

74 Philosophical

Enceladus is another proof of the deluge in He-
brew ; for, according to Pluche, it is the fountain of
time ; but, unluckily, in Greek it is "noise."

Ephialtes, another demonstration of the deluge
in Hebrew; for ephialtes, which signifies leaper,
oppressor, incubus, in Greek is, according to Pluche,
"a vast accumulation of clouds."

But the Greeks, having taken everything from
the Hebrews, with whom they were unacquainted,
clearly gave to their giants all those names which
Pluche extracts from the Hebrew as well as he can,
and all as a memorial of the deluge.

Such is the reasoning of Pluche. It is he who
cites the author of the article on "Deluge" without
refuting him. Does he speak seriously, or does he
jest? I do not know. All I know is, that there is
scarcely a single system to be found at which one
can forbear jesting.

I have some apprehension that the article in the
grand "Encyclopaedia," attributed to M. Boulanger,
is not serious. In that case, we ask whether it is
philosophical. Philosophy is so often deceived, that
we shall not venture to decide against M. Boulanger.

Still less shall we venture to ask what was that
abyss which was broken up, or what were the cat-
aracts of heaven which were opened. Isaac Vossius
denies the universality of the deluge : "Hoc est pie
nugari." Calmet maintains it; informing us, that
bodies have no weight in air, but in consequence of
their being compressed by air. Calmet was not

Dictionary. 75

much of a natural philosopher, and the weight of the
air has nothing to do with the deluge. Let us con-
tent ourselves with reading and respecting every-
thing in the Bible, without comprehending a single
word of it.

I do not comprehend how God created a race of
men in order to drown them, and then substituted in
their room a race still viler than the first.

How seven pairs of all kinds of clean animals
should come from the four quarters of the globe,
together with two pairs of unclean ones, without
the wolves devouring the sheep on the way, or the
kites the pigeons, etc.

How eight persons could keep in order, feed, and
water, such an immense number of inmates, shut
up in an ark for nearly two years ; for, after the
cessation of the deluge, it would be necessary to
have food for all these passengers for another year,
in consequence of the herbage being so scanty.

I am not like M. Le Peletier. I admire every-
thing, and explain nothing.

DEMOCRACY.

Le f)ire des itats, c'est V itat Populaire.
That sway is worst, in which the people rule.

Such is the opinion which Cinna gave Augustus.

But on the other hand, Maximus maintains, that

Le pire des itats, c'est Feint monarcJiique.
That sway is worst, in which a monarch rules.

Bayle, in his "Philosophical Dictionary," after

76 Philosophical

having repeatedly advocated both sides of the ques-
tion, gives, under the article on "Pericles," a most
disgusting picture of democracy, and more particu-
larly that of Athens.

A republican, who is a stanch partisan of democ-
racy, and one of our "proposers of questions," sends
us his refutation of Bayle and his apology for
Athens. We will adduce his reasons. It is the priv-
ilege of every writer to judge the living and the
dead ; he who thus sits in judgment will be himself
judged by others, who, in their turn, will be judged
also ; and thus, from age to age, all sentences are,
according to circumstances, reversed or reformed.

Bayle, then, after some common-place observa-
tions, uses these words: "A man would look in
vain into the history of Macedon for as much
tyranny as he finds in the history of Athens."

Perhaps Bayle was discontented with Holland
when he thus wrote ; and probably my republican
friend, who refutes him, is contented with his little
democratic city "for the present."

It is difficult to weigh, in an exquisitely nice bal-
ance, the iniquities of the republic of Athens and of
the court of Macedon. We still upbraid the Athe-
nians with the banishment of Cimon, Aristides,
Themistocles, and Alcibiades, and the sentences of
death upon Phocion and Socrates ; sentences simi-
lar in absurdity and cruelty to those of some of our
own tribunals.

In short, what we can never pardon in the Athe-

Dictionary. 77

nians is the execution of their six victorious gen-
erals, condemned because they had not time to bury
their dead after the victory, and because they were
prevented from doing so by a tempest. The sen-
tence is at once so ridiculous and barbarous, it bears
such a stamp of superstition and ingratitude, that
those of the Inquisition, those delivered against Ur-
bain Grandier, against the wife of Marshal d'Ancre,
against IMontrin, and against innumerable sorcerers
and witches, etc., are not, in fact, fooleries more
atrocious.

It is in vain to say, in excuse of the Athenians,
that they believed, like Homer before them, that
the souls of the dead were always wandering, unless
they had received the honors of sepulture or burn-
ing. A folly is no excuse for a barbarity.

A dreadful evil, indeed, for the souls of a few
Greeks to ramble for a week or two on the shores of
the ocean ! The evil is, in consigning living men to
the executioner ; living men who have won a battle
for you ; living men, to whom you ought to be de-
voutly grateful.

Thus, then, are the Athenians convicted of hav-
mg been at once the most silly and the most barbar-
ous judges in the world. But we must now place
in the balance the crimes of the court of Macedon ;
we shall see that that court far exceeds Athens in
point of tyranny and atrocity.

There is ordinarily no comparison to be made be-
tween the crimes of the great, who are always am-

7 8 Philosophical

bitious, and those of the people, who never desire,
and who never can desire, anything but hberty and
equahty. These two sentiments, "Hberty and equal-
ity," do not necessarily lead to calumny, rapine,
assassination, poisoning, and devastation of the
lands of neighbors ; but, the towering ambition and
thirst for power of the great precipitate them head-
long into every species of crime in all periods and
all places.

In this same Macedon, the virtue of which Bayle
opposes to that of Athens, we see nothing but a
tissue of tremendous crimes for a series of two hun-
dred years.

It is Ptolemy, the uncle of Alexander the Great,
who assassinates his brother Alexander to usurp the
kingdom. It is Philip, his brother, who spends his
life in guilt and perjury, and ends it by a stab from
Pausanias.

Olympias orders Queen Cleopatra and her son to
be thrown into a furnace of molten brass. She
assassinates Aridaeus. Antigonus assassinates Eu-
rnenes. Antigonus Gonatas, his son, poisons the
governor of the citadel of Corinth, marries his
widow, expels her, and takes possession of the cita-
del. Philip, his grandson, poisons Demetrius, and
defiles the whole of Macedon with murders. Per-
seus kills his wife with his own hand, and poisons
his brother. These perfidies and cruelties are au-
thenticated in history.

Thus, then, for two centuries, the madness of

Dictionary. 79

despotism converts Macedon into a theatre for every
crime ; and in the same space of time you see the
popular government of Athens stained only by five
or six acts of judicial iniquity, five or six certainly
atrocious judgments, of which the people in every
instance repented, and for which they made, as far
as they could, honorable expiation (amende hon-
orable). They asked pardon of Socrates after his
death, and erected to his memory the small temple
called Socratcion. They asked pardon of Phocion,
and raised a statue to his honor. They asked par-
don of the six generals, so ridiculously condemned
and so basely executed. They confined in chains
the principal accuser, who, with difficulty, escaped
from public vengeance. The Athenian people,
therefore, appear to have had good natural disposi-
tions, connected, as they were, with great versatility
and frivolity. In what despotic state has the in-
justice of precipitate decrees ever been thus ingenu-
ously acknowledged and deplored?

Bayle, then, is for this once in the wrong. My
republican has reason on his side. Popular govern-
ment, therefore, is in itself iniquitous, and less
abominable than monarchical despotism.

The great vice of democracy is certainly not
tyranny and cruelty. There have been republicans
in mountainous regions wild and ferocious ; but they
were made so, not by the spirit of republicanism, but
by nature. The North American savages were en-
tirely republican; but they were republics of bears.

8o Philosophical

The radical vice of a civilized republic is ex-
pressed by the Turkish fable of the dragon with
many heads, and the dragon with many tails. The
multitude of heads become injurious, and the multi-
tude of tails obey one single head, which wants to
devour all.

Democracy seems to suit only a very small coun-
try ; and even that fortunately situated. Small as it
may be, it will commit many faults, because it will be
composed of men. Discord will prevail in it, as in
a convent of monks ; but there will be no St. Bar-
tholomews there, no Irish massacre, no Sicilian ves-
pers, no Inquisition, no condemnation to the galleys
for having taken water from the ocean without pay-
ing for it ; at least, unless it be a republic of devils,
established in some corner of hell.

After having taken the side of my Swiss friend
against the dexterous fencing-master, Bayle, I will
add : That the Athenians were warriors like the
Swiss, and as polite as the Parisians were under
Louis XIV. ; that they excelled in every art requir-
ing genius or execution, like the Florentine in time
of the Medici ; that they were the masters of the
Romans in the sciences and in eloquence, even in
the days of Cicero ; that this same people, insignifi-
cant in number, who scarcely possessed anything of
territory, and who, at the present day, consist only
of a band of ignorant slaves, a hundred times less
numerous than the Jews, and deprived of all but
their name, yet bear away the palm from Roman

Dictionary. 8 1

power, by their ancient reputation, which triumphs
at once over time and degradation.

Europe has seen a repubHc, ten times smaller
than Athens, attract its attention for the space of
one hundred and fifty years, and its name placed by
the side of that of Rome, even while she still com-
manded kings ; while she condemned one Henry, a
sovereign of France, and absolved and scourged an-
other Henry, the first man of his age ; even while
Venice retained her ancient splendor, and the re-
public of the seven United Provinces was astonish-
ing Europe and the Indies, by its successful estab-
lishment and extensive commerce.

This almost imperceptible ant-hill could not be
crushed by the royal demon of the South, and the
monarch of two worlds, nor by the intrigues of the
Vatican, which put in motion one-half of Europe.
It resisted by words and by arms ; and with the help
of a Picard who wrote, and a small number of Swiss
who fought for it, it became at length established
and triumphant, and was enabled to say, *'Rome and
I." She kept all minds divided between the rich
pontiffs who succeeded to the Scipios — Romanos
rerntn dominos — and the poor inhabitants of a cor-
ner of the world long unknown in a country of pov'
erty and goitres.

The main point was, to decide how Europe

should think on the subject of certain questions

which no one understood. It was the conflict of the

human mind. The Calvins, the Bezas, and Turetins,
Vol. 8—6

82 Philosophical

were the Demostheneses, Platos, and Aristotles, of
the day.

The absurdity of the greater part of the contro-
versial questions which bound down the attention of
Europe, having at length been acknowledged, this
small republic turned our consideration to what ap-
pears of solid consequence — the acquisition of
wealth. The system of law, more chimerical and
less baleful than that of the supralapsarians and the
sublapsarians, occupied with arithmetical calcula-
tions those who could no longer gain celebrity as
partisans of the doctrine of crucified divinity. They
became rich, but were no longer famous.

It is thought at present there is no republic, ex-
cept in Europe. I am mistaken if I have not some-
where made the remark myself; it must, however,
have been a great inadvertence. The Spaniards
found in America the republic of Tlascala perfectly
well established. Every part of that continent which
has not been subjugated is still republican. In the
whole of that vast territory, when it was first dis-
covered, there existed no more than two kingdoms ;
and this may well be considered as a proof that re-
publican government is the most natural. Men must
have obtained considerable refinement, and have
tried many experiments, before they submit to the
government of a single individual.

In Africa, the Hottentots, the Kaffirs, and many
communities of negroes, are democracies. It is pre-
tended that the countries in which the greater part

Dictionary. 83

of the negroes are sold are governed by kings.
Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers are republics of soldiers
and pirates. There are similar ones in India. The
Mahrattas, and many other Indian hordes, have no
kings : they elect chiefs when they go on their expe-
ditions of plunder.

Such are also many of the hordes of Tartars.
Even the Turkish Empire has long been a republic
of janissaries, who have frequently strangled their
sultan, when their sultan did not decimate them.
We are every day asked, whether a republican or a
kingly government is to be preferred? The dispute
always ends in agreeing that the government of men
is exceedingly difficult. The Jews had God himself
for their master ; yet observe the events of their his-
tory. They have almost always been trampled upon
and enslaved ; and, nationally, what a wretched fig-
ure do they make at present!

DEMONIACS.

Hypochondriacal and epileptic persons, and
women laboring under hysterical affections, have
always been considered the victims of evil spirits,
malignant demons and divine vengeance. We have
seen that this disease was called the sacred disease ;
and that while the physicians were ignorant, the
priests of antiquity obtained everywhere the care
and management of such diseases.

When the symptoms were verv complicated, the
patient was supposed to be possessed with many de^

84 Philosophical

mons — a demon of madness, one of luxury, one of
avarice, one of obstinacy, one of short-sightedness,
one of deafness ; and the exerciser could not easily
miss finding a demon of foolery created, with an-
other of knavery.

The Jews expelled devils from the bodies of the
possessed, by the application of the root barath, and
a certain formula of words ; our Saviour expelled
them by a divine virtue ; he communicated that vir-
tue to his apostles, but it is now greatly impaired.

A short time since, an attempt was made to renew
the history of St. Paulin. That saint saw on the
roof of a church a poor demoniac, who walked un-
der, or rather upon, this roof or ceiling, with his
head below and his feet above, nearly in the manner
of a fly. St. Paulin clearly perceived that the man
Vvas possessed, and sent several leagues off for some
relics of St. Felix of Nola, which were applied to
the patient as blisters. The dernon who supported
the man against the roof instantly fled, and the de-
moniac fell down upon the pavement.

We may have doubts about this history, while w6
preserve the most profound respect for genuine
miracles ; and we may be permitted to observe that
this is not the way in which we now cure demoniacs.
We bleed them, bathe them, and gently relax them
by medicine ; we apply emollients to them. This is
M. Pome's treatment of them; and he has per-
formed more cures than the priests of Isis or Diana,
or of anyone else who ever wrought by miracles.

Dictionary, 85

As to demoniacs who say they are possessed merely
to gain money, instead of being bathed, they are at
present flogged.

It often happened, that the specific gravity of
epileptics, whose fibres and muscles withered away,
was lighter than water, and that they floated when
put into it. A miracle ! was instantly exclaimed. It
was pronounced that such a person must be a de-
moniac or sorcerer; and holy water or the execu-
tioner was immediately sent for. It was an unques-
tionable proof that either the demon had become
master of the body of the floating person, or that the
latter had voluntarily delivered himself over to the
demon. On the first supposition the person was ex-
orcised, on the second he was burned. Thus have
we been reasoning and acting for a period of fifteen
or sixteen hundred years, and yet we have the ef-
frontery to laugh at the Kaffirs.

In 1603, in a small village of Franche-Comte, a
woman of quality made her granddaughter read
aloud the lives of the saints in the presence of her
parents; this young woman, who was, in some re^
spects, very well informed, but ignorant of orthog"
raphy, substituted the word histories for that of lives
(z'ies). Her step-mother, who hated her, said to
her in a tone of harshness, "Why don't you read as
it is there ?" The girl blushed and trembled, but did
not venture to say anything; she wished to avoid
disclosing which of her companions had interpreted
the word upon a false orthography, and prevented

86 Philosophical

her using it. A monk, who was the family con-
fessor, pretended that the devil had taught her the
word. The girl chose to be silent rather than vindi-
cate herself ; her silence was considered as amount-
ing to confession; the Inquisition convicted her of
having made a compact with the devil : she was con-
demned to be burned, because she had a large for-
tune from her mother, and the confiscated property
went by law to the inquisitors. She was the hun-
dred thousandth victim of the doctrine of demoniacs,
persons possessed by devils and exorcisms, and of
the real devils who swayed the world.

DESTINY.

Of all the books written in the western climes of
the world, which have reached our times. Homer is
the most ancient. In his works we find the manners
of profane antiquity, coarse heroes, and material
gods, made after the image of man, but mixed up
with reveries and absurdities ; we also find the seeds
of philosophy, and more particularly the idea of des-
tiny, or necessity, who is the dominatrix of the gods,
as the gods are of the world.

When the magnanimous Hector determines to
fight the magnanimous Achilles, and runs away with
all possible speed, making the circuit of the city
three times, in order to increase his vigor; when
Homer compares the light-footed Achilles, who pur-
sues him, to a man that is asleep ! and when Madame
Dacier breaks into a rapture of admiration at the art

Dictionary. 87

and meaning exhibited in this passage, it is precisely
then that Jupiter, desirous of saving the great Hec-
tor who has offered up to him so many sacrifices, be-
thinks him of consulting the destinies, upon weigh-
ing the fates of Hector and Achilles in a balance.
He finds that the Trojan must inevitably be killed by
the Greek, and is not only unable to oppose it, but
from that moment Apollo, the guardian genius of
Hector, is compelled to abandon him. It is not to
be denied that Homer is frequently extravagant, and
even on this very occasion displays a contradictory
flow of ideas, according to the privilege of antiquity ;
but yet he is the first in whom we meet with the
notion of destiny. It may be concluded, then, that
in his days it was a prevalent one.

The Pharisees, among the small nation of Jews,
did not adopt the idea of a destiny till many ages
after. For these Pharisees themselves, who were
the most learned class among the Jews, were but of
very recent date. They mixed up, in Alexandria, a
portion of the dogmas of the Stoics with their
ancient Jewish ideas. St. Jerome goes so far as to
state that their sect is but a little anterior to our vul-
gar era.

Philosophers would never have required the aid
of Homer, or of the Pharisees, to be convinced that
everything is performed according to immutable
laws, that everything is ordained, that everything
is, in fact, necessary. The manner in which they
reason is as follows :

88 Philosophical

Either the world subsists by its own nature, by
its own physical lawSj or a Supreme Being has
formed it according to His supreme laws : in both
cases these laws are immovable ; in both cases every-
thing is necessary; heavy bodies tend towards the
centre of the earth without having any power or ten-
dency to rest in the air. Pear-trees cannot produce
pine-apples. The instinct of a spaniel cannot be the
instinct of an ostrich; everything is arranged, ad-
justed, and fixed.

Man can have only a certain number of teeth,
hairs, and ideas ; and a period arrives when he neces-
sarily loses his teeth, hair, and ideas.

It is contradictory to say that yesterday should
not have been ; or that to-day does not exist ; it is
just as contradictory to assert that that which is to
come will not inevitably be.

Could you derange the destiny of a single fly
there would be no possible reason why you should
not control the destiny of all other flies, of all other
animals, of all men, of all nature. You would find,
in fact, that you were more powerful than God.

Weak-minded persons say : "My physician has
brought my aunt safely through a mortal disease ;
he has added ten years to my aunt's life." Others of
more judgment say, the prudent man makes his own
destiny.

Nullum 7iumen abest, si sit Prudentia, sed te
Nos facitnus, Fortuna, deavi cosloque locamus.

— Juvenal, Sat. x. v. 365.

Dictionary. 89

We call on Fortune, and her aid implore,
While Prudence is the goddess to adore.

But frequently the prudent man succumbs under his
destiny instead of making it ; it is destiny whicU
makes men prudent. Profound pohtici^ns assure us
that if Cromwell, Ludlow, Ireton, and a dozen
other parliamentary leaders, had been assassinated
eight days before Charles I. had his head cut off,
that king would have continued alive and have died
in his bed ; they are right ; and they may add, that
if all England had been swallowed up in the sea,
that king would not have perished on a scaffold be-
fore Whitehall. But things were so arranged that
Charles was to have his head cut off.

Cardinal d'Ossat was unquestionably more clever
than an idiot of the petitcs luaisons; but is it not
evident that the organs of the wise d'Ossat were dif-
ferently formed than those of that idiot ?^ — Just as
the organs of a fox are different from those of a
crane or a lark.

Your physician saved your aunt, but in so doing
he certainly did pot contradict the order of nature,
but followed it. It is clear that your aunt could not
prevent her birth in a certain place, that she could
not help being affected by a certain malady, at a cer-
tain time; that the physician could be in no other
place than where he was, that your aunt could not
but apply to him, that he could not but prescribe
medicines which cured her, or were thought to cure
her, while nature was the sole physician.

90 Philosophical

A peasant thinks that it hailed upon his field by
chance; but the philosopher knows that there was
no chance, and that it was absolutely impossible, ac-
cording to the constitution of the world, for it not
to have hailed at that very time and place.

There are some who, being shocked by this truth,
concede only half of it, like debtors who offer one
moiety of their property to their creditors, and ask
remission for the other. There are, they say, some
events which are necessary, and others which are
not so. It would be curious for one part of the
world to be changed and the other not; that one
part of what happens should happen inevitably, and
another fortuitously. When we examine the ques-
tion closely, we see that the doctrine opposed to that
of destiny is absurd ; but many men are destined to
be bad reasoners, others not to reason at all, and
others to persecute those who reason well or ill.

Some caution us by saying, "Do not believe in
fatalism, for, if you do, everything appearing to you
unavoidable, you will exert yourself for nothing;
you will sink down in indifference ; you will regard
neither wealth, nor honors, nor praise ; you will be
careless about acquiring anything whatever; you
will consider yourself meritless and powerless ; no
talent will be cultivated, and all will be overwhelmed
in apathy."

Do not be afraid, gentlemen ; we shall always
have passions and prejudices, since it is our destiny
to be subjected to prejudices and passions. We shall

Dictionary. 91

very well know that it no more depends upon us to
have great merit or superior talents than to have a
fine head of hair, or a beautiful hand ; we shall be
convinced that we ought to be vain of nothing, and
yet vain we shall always be.

I have necessarily the passion for writing as I
now do ; and, as for you, you have the passion for
censuring me ; we are both equally fools, both
equally the sport of destiny. Your nature is to do
ill, mine is to love truth, and publish it in spite of
you.

The owl, while supping upon mice in his ruined
tower, said to the nightingale, "Stop your singing
there in your beautiful arbor, and come to my hole
that I may eat you." The nightingale replied, "I
am born to sing where I am, and to laugh at you."

You ask me what is to become of liberty: I do
not understand you ; I do not know what the lib-
erty you speak of really is. You have been so long
disputing about the nature of it that you do not
understand it. If you are willing, or rather, if you
are able to examine with me coolly what it is, turn
to the letter L.

DEVOTEE.

The word devout (devot) signifies devoted
(dcvoue), and, in the strict sense of the term, can
only be applicable to monks, and to females belong-
ing to some religious order and under vows. But
as the gospel makes no mention of vows or devotees,

9^ Philosophical

the title should not, in fact, be given to any person :
the whole world ought to be equally just. A man
who calls himself devout is like a plebeian who calls
himself a marquis; he arrogates a quality which
does not belong to him; he thinks himself a better
man than his neighbor. We pardon this folly in
women ; their weakness and frivolity render them
excusable; they pass, poor things, from a lover to
a spiritual director with perfect sincerity, but we
cannot pardon the knaves who direct them, who
abuse their ignorance, and establish the throne of
their pride on the credulity of the sex. They form
a snug mystical harem, composed of seven or eight
elderly beauties subjugated by the weight of inoccu-
pation, and almost all these subjects pay tribute to
their new master. No young women without lovers ;
no elderly devotee without a director. — Oh, how
much more shrewd are the Orientals than we! A
pasha never says, "We supped last night with the
aga of the janissaries, who is my sister's lover ; and
with the vicar of the mosque, who is my wife's di-
rector !"

DIAL.

Dial of Alias.
It is well known that everything is miraculous in
the history of the Jews; the miracle performed in
favor of King Hezekiah on the dial of Ahaz is one
of the greatest that ever took place : it is evident
that the whole earth must have been deranged, the

Dictionary. 93

course of the stars changed forever, and the periods
of the ecHpses of the sun and moon so altered as to
confuse all the ephemerides. This was the second
time the prodigy happened. Joshua had stopped the
sun at noon on Gibeon, and the moon on Ascalon, in
order to get time to kill a troop of Amorites al-
ready crushed by a shower of stones from heaven.

The sun, instead of stopping for King Hezekiah,
went back, which is nearly the same thing, only dif-
ferently described.

In the first place Isaiah said to Hezekiah, who
was sick, "Thus saith the Lord, set thine house in
order; for thou shalt die and not live."

Hezekiah wept and God was softened ; He signi-
fied to him, through Isaiah, that he should still live
fifteen years, and that in three days he should go to
the temple ; then Isaiah brought a plaster of figs and
put it on the king's ulcers, and he was cured — "et
curatus est."

Hezekiah demanded a sign to convince him that
he should be cured. Isaiah said to him, "Shall the
shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten de-
grees?" And Hezekiah answered, "It is a light
thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees ; let
the shadow return backward ten degrees." And
Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord, and He
brought the shadow ten degrees backwards from
the point to which it had gone down on the dial of
Ahaz.

We should like to know what this dial of Ahaz

94 Philosophical

was ; whether it was the work of a dialmaker named
Ahaz, or whether it was a present made to a king of
that name, it is an object of curiosity. There have
been many disputes on this dial ; the learned have
proved that the Jews never knew either clocks or
dials before their captivity in Babylon — the only
time, say they, in which they learned anything of the
Chaldaeans, or the greater part of the nation began
to read or write. It is even known that in their lan-
guage they had no words to express clock, dial,
geometry, or astronomy ; and in the Book of Kings
the dial of Ahaz is called the hour of the stone.

But the grand question is to know how King
Hezekiah, the possessor of this clock, or dial of the
sun — this hour of stone — could tell that it was easy
to advance the sun ten degrees. It is certainly as
difficult to make it advance against its ordinary
motion as to make it go backward.

The proposition of the prophet appears as aston-
ishing as the discourse of the king: Shall the
shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten de-
grees? That would have been well said in some
town of Lapland, where the longest day of the year
is twenty hours ; but at Jerusalem, where the longesl
day of the year is about fourteen hours and a half, ii
was absurd. The king and the prophet deceived
each other grossly. We do not deny the miracle,
we firmly believe it ; we only remark that Hezekiah
and Isaiah knew not what they said. Whatever
the hour, it was a thing equally impossible to make

Dictionary. 95

the shadow of the dial advance or recede ten hours.
If it were two hours after noon, the prophet could,
no doubt, have very well made the shadow of the
dial go back to four o'clock in the morning ; but in
this case he could not have advanced it ten hours,
since then it would have been midnight, and at that
time it is not usual to have a shadow of the sun in
perfection.

It is difficult to discover when this strange his-
tory was written, but perhaps it was towards the
time in which the Jews only confusedly knew that
there were clocks and sun-dials. In that case it is
true that they got but a very imperfect knowledge of
these sciences until they went to Babylon. There is
a still greater difficulty of which the commentators
have not thought; which is that the Jews did not
count by hours as we do.

The same miracle happened in Greece, the day
that Atreus served up the children of Thyestes for
their father's supper.

The same miracle was still more sensibly per-
formed at the time of Jupiter's intrigue with Alc-
mena. It required a night double the natural length
to form Hercules. These adventures are common
in antiquity, but very rare in our days, in which all
things have degenerated.

DICTIONARY.

The invention of dictionaries, which was un-
known to antiquity, is of the most unquestionable

§6 Philosophical

utility; and the "Encyclopedia," which was sugf-
gested by Messrs. d'Alembert and Diderot, and so
successfully completed by them and their associates,
notwithstanding all its defects, is a decisive evidence
of it. What we find there undelr the article "Dic-
tionary" would be a sufficient instance; it is done
by the hand of a master.

I mean to speak here only of a new species of
historical dictionaries, which contain a series of lies
and satires in alphabetical order; such is the "His-
torical Literary and Critical Dictionary," containing
a summary of the lives of celebrated men of every
description, and printed in 1758, in six volumes,
octavo, without the name of the author.

The compilers of that work begin with declaring
that it was undertaken by the advice of the author of
the "Ecclesiastical Gazette," "a formidable writer,"
they add, "whose arrow," which had already been
compared to that of Jonathan, "never returned back,
and was always steeped in the blood of the slain, in
the carnage of the valiant." — "A sanguine inter-
fectonim ab adipe fortium sagitta Jonatha nunquam
abiii retrorsum/*

It will, no doubt, be easily admitted that the con-
nection between Jonathan, the son of Saul, who was
killed at the battle of Gilboa, and a Parisian convul-
sionary, who scribbles ecclesiastical notices in his
garret, in 1758, is wonderfully striking.

The author of this preface speaks in it of the great
Colbert. We should conceive, at first, that the great

Dictionary. jiy

statesman who conferred such vast benefits on
France is alluded to ; no such thing, it is a bishop of
MontpelHer. He complains that no other dictionary
has bestowed sufficient praise on the celebrated Abbe
d'Asfeld, the illustrious Boursier, the famous
Genes, the immortal Laborde, and that the lash of
invective on the other hand has not been sufficiently
applied to Languet, archbishop of Sens, and a person
of the name of Fillot, all, as he pretends, men well
known from the Pillars of Hercules to the frozen
ocean. He engages to be "animated, energetic, and
sarcastic, on a principle of religion" ; that he will
Wake his countenance "sterner than that of his ene-
mies, and his front harder than their front, accord-
ing to the words of Ezekiel," etc.

He declares that he has put in contribution all
the journals and all the anas ; and he concludes with
hoping that heaven will bestow a blessing on his
labors.

In dictionaries of this description, which are
merely party works, w^e rarely find what we are in
quest of, and often what we are not. Under the
word "Adonis," for example, we learn that Venuis
fell in love with him ; but not a word about the wor-
ship of Adonis, or Adonai among the Phoenicians —
nothing about those very ancient and celebrated fes-
tivals, those lamentations succeeded by rejoicings,
which were manifest allegories, like the feasts of
Ceres, of Isis, and all the mysteries of antiquity.

But, in compensation, we find Adkichomia a devotee,

Vol. 8— T

98 Philosophical

who translated David's psalms in the sixteenth cen-
tury; and Adkichonius, apparently her relation, who
wrote the life of Jesus Christ in low German.

We may well suppose that all the individuals of
the faction which employed this person are loaded
with praise, and their enemies with abuse. The
author, of the crew of authors who have put to-
gether this vocabulary of trash, say of Nicholas
Boindin, attorney-general of the treasures of France,
and a member of the Academy of Belles-lettres, that
he was a poet and an atheist.

That magistrate, however, never printed any
verses, and never wrote anything on metaphysics or
religion.

He adds that Boindin will be ranked by pos-
terity among the Vaninis, the Spinozas, and the
Hobbeses. He is ignorant that Hobbes never pro-
fessed atheism — that he merely subjected reUgion
to the sovereign power, which he denominates the
Leviathan. He is ignorant that Vanini was not an
atheist ; that the term "atheist" is not to be found
even in the decree which condemned him ; and that
he was accused of impiety for having strenuously
opposed the philosophy of Aristotle, and for having
disputed with indiscretion and acrimony against a
counsellor of the parliament of Toulouse, called
Francon, or Franconi, who had the credit of getting
him burned to death ; for the latter burn whom they
please ; witness the Maid of Orleans, Michael Serve-
tus, the Counsellor Dubourg, the wife of Marshal

Dictionary. gg

d'Ancre, Urbain Grandier, Morin, and the books of
the Jansenists. See, moreover, the apology for
Vanini by the learned Lacroze, and the article on
"Atheism."

The vocabulary treats Boindin as a miscreant ;
his relations were desirous of proceeding at law and
punishing an author, who himself so well deserved
the appellation which he so infamously applied to a
man who was not merely a magistrate, but also
learned and estimable ; but the calumniator con-
cealed himself, like most libellers, under a fictitious
name.

Immediately after having applied such shameful
language to a man respectable compared with him-
self, he considers him as an irrefragable witness, be-
cause Boindin — whose unhappy temper was well
known — left an ill-written and exceedingly ill-ad-
vised memorial, in which he accuses La Motte — one
of the worthiest men in the world, a geometrician,
and an ironmonger — with having written the infa-
mous verses for which Jean Baptiste Rousseau was
convicted. Finally, in the list of Boindin's works, he
altogether omits his excellent dissertations printed
in the collection of the Academy of Belles-lettres, of
which he was a highly distinguished member.

The article on"Fontenelle" is nothing but a satire
upon that ingenious and learned academician, whose
science and talents are esteemed by the whole of
literary Europe. The author has the effrontery to
say that "his 'History of Oracles' does no honor to

lOO Philosophical

his religion." If Van Dale, the author of the "His-
tory of Oracles," and his abridger, Fontenelle, had
lived in the time of the Greeks and of the Roman
republic, it might have been said w^ith reason that
they were rather good philosophers than good
pagans; but, to speak sincerely, what injury do they
do to Christianity by showing that the pagan priests
were a set of knaves ? Is it not evident that the au-
thors of the libel, miscalled a dictionary, are plead-
ing their own cause? *'Jam proxinms ardet Uca-
legon." But would it be offering an insult to the
Christian religion to prove the knavery of the Con-
vulsionaries ? Government has done more ; it has
punished them without being accused of irreligion.

The libeller adds that he suspects that Fonte-
nelle never performed the duties of a Christian but
out of contempt for Christianity itself. It is a
strange species of madness on the part of these
fanatics to be always proclaiming that a philosopher
cannot be a Christian. They ought to be excom-
municated and punished for this alone ; for assur-
edly it implies a wish to destroy Christianity to as-
sert that it is impossible for a man to be a good
reasoner and at the same time believe a religion so
reasonable and holy.

Des Yveteaux, preceptor of Louis XIV., is ac-
cused of having lived and died without religion. It
seems as if these compilers had none ; or at least as
if, \vhile violating all the precepts of the true one,

Dictlohat-y. lot

they were Searching about everywhere for accom-
pHces.

The very gentlemanly writer of these articles is
wonderfully pleased with exhibiting all the bad
verses that have been written on the French Acad-
emy, and various anecdotes as ridiculous as they are
false. This also is apparently out of zeal for religion.

I ought not to lose an opportunity of refuting an
absurd story which has been much circulated, and
which is repeated exceedingly malapropos under
the article of the "Abbe Gedoyn," upon whom the
writer falls foul with great satisfaction, because in
his youth he had been a Jesuit; a transient weak-
ness, of which I know he repented all his life.

The devout and scandalous compiler of the dic-
tionary asserts that the Abbe Gedoyn slept with the
celebrated Ninon de I'Enclos on the very night of
her completing her eightieth year. It certainly was
not exactly befitting in a priest to relate this anec-
dote in a pretended dictionary of illustrious men.
Such a foolery, however, is in fact highly improba-
ble ; and I can take upon me to assert that nothing
can be more false. The same anecdote was formerly
put down to the credit of the Abbe Chateauneuf,
who was not very difficult in his amours, and who,
it was said, had received Ninon's favors when she
was of the age of sixty, or, rather, had conferred
upoii her his own. In early life I saw a great deal
of the Abbe Gedoyn, the Abbe Chateauneuf, and

I02 Philosophical

Mademoiselle de rEnclos ; and I can truly declare
that at the age of eighty years her countenance bore
the most hideous marks of old age — that her person
was afflicted with all the infirmities belonging to that
stage of life, and that her mind was under the influ-
ence of the maxims of an austere philosophy.

Under the article on '"Deshoulieres" the compiler
pretends that lady was the same who was designated
under the term prude (precieiise) in Boileau's satire
upon women. Never was any woman more free
from such weakness than Madame Deshoulieres ;
she always passed for a woman of the best society,
possessed great simplicity, and was highly agreeable
in conversation.

The article on ''La ]\Iotte" abounds with atrocious
abuse of that academician, who was a man of very
amiable manners, and a philosophic poet who pro-
duced excellent works of every description. Finally
the author, in order to secure the sale of his book of
six volumics, has made of it a slanderous libel.

His hero is Carre de ]\Iontgeron, who presented
to the king a collection of the miracles performed by
the Convulsionaries in the cemetery of St. Aledard ;
who became mad and died insane.

The interest of the republic of literature and
reason demands that those libellers should be deliv-
ered up to public indignation, lest their example,
operating upon the sordid love of gain, should stim-
ulate others to imitation ; and the more so, as
nothing is so easy as to copy books in alphabetical

Dictionary. 103

order, and add to them insipidities, calumnies, and
abuse.

Extract from the Reflections of an Academician on
the "Dictionary of the French Academy."

It would be desirable to state the natural and in-
contestable etymology of every word, to compare
the application, the various significations, the extent
of the word, with use of it ; the different accepta-
tions, the strength or weakness of correspondent
terms in foreign languages ; and finally, to quote the
best authors who have used the w'ord, to show the
greater or less extent of meaning which they have
given to it and to remark whether it is more fit for
poetry than prose.

For example, I have observed that the "in-
clemetiCy" of the w^eather is ridiculous in history,
because that term has its origin in the anger of
heaven, which is supposed to be manifested by the
intemperateness, irregularities, and rigors of the
seasons, by the violence of the cold, the disorder of
the atmosphere, by tempests, storms, and pestilential
exhalations. Thus then inclemency, being a meta-
phor, is consecrated to poetry.

I have given to the word "impotence" all the
acceptations which it receives. I showed the correct-
ness of the historian, who speaks of the impotence of
King Alphonso, without explaining whether he re-
ferred to that of resisting his brother, or that with
which he was charged by his wdfe.

I04 Philosophical

I have endeavored to show that the epithets -Hrre^
sistible" and "incurable" require very deHcate man-
agement. The first who used the expression, "the
irresistible impulse of genius," made a very fortunate
hit ; because, in fact, the question was in relation to
a great genius throwing itself upon its own re-
sources in spite of all difficulties. Those imitators
who have employed the expression in reference to
very inferior men are plagiarists who know not
how to dispose of what they steal.

As soon as the man of genius has made a new ap-
plication of any word in the language, copyists are
pot wanting to apply it, very malapropos, in twenty
places, without giving the inventor any credit.

I do not know that a single one of these words,
termed by Boileau "foundlings" {des mots trouves)
a single new expression of genius, is to be found in
any tragic author since Racine, until within the last
few years. These words are generally lax, inef-
fective, stale, and so ill placed as to produce a bar-
barous style. To the disgrace oi the nation, these
Visigothic and Vandal productions were for a cer-
tain time extolled, panegyrized, and admired in the
journals, especially as they came out under the pro-
tection of a certain lady of distinction, who knew
nothing at ah about the subject. We have recovered
:from all this now ; and, with one or two exceptions,
the whole race of such productions is extinct for--
ever.

I did not in the first instance intend to make all

Dictionary. 105

these reflections, but to put the reader in a situation
to make them. I have shown at the letter E that
our c mute, with which we are reproached by an
ItaHan, is precisely what occasions the dehcious har-
mon}^ of our language : — empire, couronne, diadhne,
epouvantahle, sensible. This e mute, which we make
perceptible without articulating it, leaves in the ear a
melodious sound like that of a bell which still re-
sounds although it is no longer struck. This we
have already stated in respect to an Italian, a man of
letters, who came to Paris to teach his owni lan-
guage, and who, while there, ought not to decry ours.

He does not perceive the beauty or necessity of
our feminine rhymes ; they are only ^^'s mute. This
interweaving of masculine and feminine rhymes
constitutes the charm of our verse.

Similar observations upon the alphabet, and upon
words generally, would not have been without
utility ; but they would have made the work too long.

DIOCLETIAN.

After several weak or tyrannic reigns, the
Roman Empire had a good emperor in Probus,
whom the legions massacred, and elected Carus,
who was struck dead by lightning while making war
against the Persians. His son, Numerianus, was
proclaimed by the soldiers. The historians tell us
seriously thiat he lost his sight by weeping for the
death of his father, and that he was obliged to be
carried along with the army, shut up in a close litter.

io6 Philosophical

His father-in-law Aper killed him in his bed, to
place himself on the throne; but a druid had pre-
dicted in Gaul to Diocletian, one of the generals of
the army, that he would become emperor after hav-
ing killed a boar. A boar, in Latin, is aper. Dio-
cletian assembled the army, killed Aper with his own
hands in the presence of the soldiers, and thus ac-
complished the prediction of the druid. The his-
torians who relate this oracle deserve to be fed on
the fruit of the tree which the druids revered. It is
certain that Diocletian killed the father-in-law of the
emperor, which was his first right to the throne.
Numerianus had a brother named Carinus, who was
also emperor, but being opposed to the elevation of
Diocletian, he was killed by one of the tribunes of
his army, which formed his second pretension to the
purple. These were Diocletian's rights to the throne,
and for a long time he had no other.

He was originally of Dalmatia, of the little town
of Dioclea, of which he took the name. If it be true
that his father was a laborer, and that he himself in
his youth had been a slave to a senator named Anu-
linus, the fact forms his finest eulogium. He could
have owed his elevation to himself alone; and it is
very clear that he had conciliated the esteem of his
army, since they forgot his birth to give him the dia-
dem. Lactantius, a Christian authority, but rather
partial, pretends that Diocletian was the greatest
poltroon of the empire. It is not very likely that the
Roman soldiers would have chosen a poltroon to

Dictionary. 107

govern them, or that this poltroon would have passed
through all the degrees of the army. The zeal of
Lactantius against a pagan emperor is very laudable,
but not judicious.

Diocletian continued for twenty years the master
of those fierce legions, who dethroned their emperors
with as much facility as they created them ; which is
another proof, notwithstanding Lactantius, that he
was as great a prince as he was a brave soldier. The
empire under him soon regained its pristine
splendor. The Gauls, the Africans, Egyptians, and
British, who had revolted several times, were all
brought under obedience to the empire; even the
Persians were vanquished. So much success with-
out ; a still more happy administration within ; laws
as humane as wise, which still exist in the Justinian
code; Rome, Milan, Autun, Nicomedia, Carthage,
embellished by his munificence ; all tended to gain
him the love and respect both of the East and West ;
so that, two hundred and forty years after his death,
they continued to reckon and date from the first year
of his reign, as they had formerly dated from the
foundation of Rome. This is what is called the era
oi Diocletian ; it has also been called the era of mar-
tyrs ; but this is a mistake of eighteen years, for it
is certain that he did not persecute any Christian for
eighteen years. So far from it, the first thing he
did, when emperor, was to give a company of prae-
torian guards to a Christian named Sebastian, who
is in the list of the saints.

io8 Philosophical

He did not fear to give a colleague to the empire
in the person of a soldier of fortune, like himself;
it was Maximian Hercules, his friend. The sim-
ilarity of their fortunes had caused their friendship.
Maximian was also born of poor and obscure
parents, and had been elevated like Diocletian, step
by step, by his own courage. People have not failed
to reproach this Maximian with taking the surname
of Hercules, and Diocletian with accepting that of
Jove. They do not condescend to perceive that we
have clergymen every day who call themselves Her-
cules, and peasants denominated Caesar and Au-
gustus.

Diocletian created two Caesars ; the first was an-
other Maximian, surnamed Galerius, who had for-
merly been a shepherd. It seemed that Diocletian,
the proudest of men and the first introducer of kiss-
ing the imperial feet, showed his greatness in placing
Caesars on the throne from men born in the most
abject condition. A slave and two peasants were at
the head of the empire, and never was it more flour-
ishing.

The second Caesar whom he created was of dis-
tinguished birth. He was Constantius Chlorus,
great-nephew, on his mother's side,, to the emperor
Claudius H. The empire was governed by these
four princes ; an association which might have pro-
duced four civil wars a year, but Diocletian knew
so well how to be master of his colleagues, that he
obliged them always to respect him, and even to live

Dictionary. 109

united atnotig themselves. These princes, with the
name of Caesars were in reahty no more than his
subjects. It is seen that he treated them Hke an ab-
solute sovereign; for when the Caesar Galerius,
having been conquered by the Persians, went into
Mesopotamia to give him the account of his defeat,
he let him walk for the space of a mile near his
chariot, and did not receive him into favor until he
had repaired his fault and misfortune.

Galerius retrieved them the year after, in 297, in
a very signal manner. He vanquished the king of
Persia in person.

These kings of Persia had not been cured, by the
battle of Arbela, of carrying their wives, daughters,
and eunuchs along with their armies. Galerius, like
Alexander, took his enemy's wife and all his family,
and treated them with the same respect. The peace
Was as glorious as the victory. The vanquished
ceded five provinces to the Romans, from the sands
of Palmyra to Armenia.

Diocletian and Galerius went to Rome to dazzle
the inhabitants with a triumph till then unheard of.
It was the first time that the Roman people had
seen the wife and children of a king of Persia in
chains. All the empire was in plenty and prosperity.
Diocletian went through all the provinces, from
Rome to Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor. His
ordinary residence was not at Rome, but at Nicome-
dia, near the Euxine Sea, either to watch over the
Persians and the barbarians, or because he was at-

no Philosophical

tached to a retreat which he had himself embellished.
It was in the midst of this prosperity that Gale-
rius commenced the persecution against the Chris-
tians. Why had he left them in repose until then,
and why were they then ill treated? Eusebius says
that a centurion of the Trajan legion, named Mar-
cellus, who served in Mauritania, assisting with his
troop at a feast given in honor of the victory of
Galerius, threw his military sash, his arms, and his
branch of vine, on the ground, and cried out loudly
that he was a Christian and that he would no longer
serve pagans — 3. desertion which was punished with
death by the council of war. This was the first
known example of the famous persecution of Dio-
cletian. It is true that there were a great number
of Christians in the armies of the em.pire, and the
interest of the state demanded that such a desertion
should not be allowed. The zeal of Marcellus was
pious, but not reasonable. If at the feast given in
Mauritania, viands offered to the gods of the empire
were eaten, the law did not command Marcellus to
eat of them, nor did Christianity order him to set the
example of sedition. There is not a country in the
world in which so rash an action would not have
been punished.

However, after the adventure of Marcellus, it
does not appear that the Christians were thought of
until the year 303. They had, at Nicomedia, a superb
church, next to the palace, which it exceeded in lofti-
ness. Historians do not tell us the reasons why

Dictionary. 1 1 1

Galerius demanded of Diocletian the instant destruc-
tion of this church ; but they tell us that Diocletian
was a long time before he determined upon it, and
that he resisted for almost a year. It is very strange
that after this he should be called the persecutor.
At last the church was destroyed and an edict was
affixed by which the Christians were deprived of all
honors and dignities. Since they were then deprived
of them, it is evident that they possessed them. A
Christian publicly tore the imperial edict in pieces —
that was not an act of religion, it was an incitement
to revolt. It is, therefore, very likely that an in-
discreet and unreasonable zeal drew down this fatal
persecution. Some time afterwards the palace of
Galerius was burned down ; he accused the Chris-
tians, and they accused Galerius of having himself
set fire to it, in order to get a pretext for calumni-
ating them. The accusation of Galerius appeared
very unjust ; that which they entered against him
was no less so, for the edict having been already
issued, what new pretext could he want? If he
really wanted a new argument to engage Diocletian
to persecute, this would only form a new proof of
the reluctance of Diocletian to abandon the Chris-
tians, whom he had always protected ; it would evi-
dently show that he wanted new additional reasons
to determine him to so much severity.

It appears certain that there were many Chris-
tians tormented in the empire, but it is difficult to
reconcile with the Roman laws the alleged reported

112 Philosophical

tortures, the mutilations, torn-out tongues, limbs cut
and broiled, and all the insults offered against mod-
esty and public decency. It is certain that no Ro-
man law ever ordered such punishments ; the aver-
sion of the people to the Christians might carry them
to horrible excesses, but we do not anywhere find
that these excesses were ordered, either by the em-
perors or the senate.

It is very likely that the suffering of the Chris-
tians spread itself in exaggerated complaints : the
"Acta Sincera" informs us that the emperor, being
at Antioch, the praetor condemned a Christian child
named Romanus to be burned ; that the Jews present
at the punishment began to laugh, saying : "We had
formerly three children, Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, who did not burn in the fiery furnace but
these do burn." At that instant, to confound the
Jews, a great rain extinguished the pile and the lit-
tle boy walked out safe and sound, asking, "Where
then is the fire ?" The account goes on to say that
the emperor commanded him to be set free, but that
the judge ordered his tongue to be cut out. It is
scarcely possible to believe that the judge would
have the tongue of a boy cut out, whom the emperor
had pardoned.

That which follows is more singular. It is pre^
tended that an old Christian physician named Aris-
ton, who had a knife ready, cut the child's tongue out
to pay his court to the prsetor. The little Romanus
was then carried back to prison ; the iailer asked him

Dictionary. 113

the news. The child related at length how the old
surgeon had cut out his tongue. It should be ob-
served that before this operation the child stammered
very much but that now he spoke with wonderful
volubility. The jailer did not fail to relate this mir-
acle to the emperor. They brought forward the old
surgeon who swore that the operation had been per-
formed according to the rules of his art and showed
the child's tongue which he had properly preserved
in a box as a relic. "Bring hither another person,"
said he, "and I will cut his tongue out in your maj-
esty's presence, and you will see if he can speak."
The proposition was accepted ; they took a poor
man whose tongue the surgeon cut out as he had
done the child's, and the man died on the spot.

I am willing to believe that the "Acts" which re-
late this fact are as veracious as their title pretends,
but they are still more simple than sincere, and it
is very strange that Fleury, in his "Ecclesiastical
History," relates such a prodigious number of simi-
lar incidents, being much more conducive to scandal
than edification.

You will also remark that in this year 303, in

which it is pretended that Diocletian was present

at this fine affair in Antioch, he was at Rome and

passed all that year in Italy. It is said that it was at

Rome, and in his presence, that St. Genestus, a

comedian, was converted on the stage while playing

in a comedy against the Christians. This play shows

clearly that the taste of Plautus and Terence no
Vol. 8—8

114 Philosophical

longer existed ; that which is now called comedy, or
Italian farce, seems to have originated at this time.
St. Genestus represented an invalid ; the physician
asked him what was the matter with him. "I am too
unwieldy," said Genestus. "Would you have us ex-
orcise you to make you lighter?" said the physician.
"No," replied Genestus, "I will die a Christian, to be
raised again of a finer stature." Then the actors,
dressed as priests and exorcists, came to baptize him,
at which moment Genestus really became a Chris-
tian, and, instead of finishing his part, began to
preach to the emperor and the people. The "Acta
Sincera" relate this miracle also.

It is certain that there were many true martyrs,
but it is not true that the provinces were inundated
with blood, as it is imagined. Mention is made of
about two hundred martyrs towards the latter days
of Diocletian in all the extent of the Roman Empire,
and it is averred, even in the letters of Constantine,
that Diocletian had much less part in the persecution
than Galerius.

Diocletian fell ill this year and feeling himself
weakened he was the first who gave the world the
example of the abdication of empire. It is not easy
to know whether this abdication was forced or not ;
it is true, however, that having recovered his health
he lived nine years equally honored and peaceable In
his retreat of Salonica, in the country of his birth.
He said that he only began to live from the day
of his retirement and when he was pressed to re-

Dictionary, 1 1 5

mount the throne he replied that the throne was not
worth the tranquilHty of his life, and that he took
more pleasure in cultivating his garden than he
should have in governing the whole earth. What
can be concluded from these facts but that with
great faults he reigned like a great emperor and fin-
ished his life like a philosopher!

DIONYSIUS, ST. (THE AREOPAGITE),

AND THE FAMOUS ECLIPSE,

The author of the article "Apocrypha" has neg-
lected to mention a hundred works recognized for
such, and which, being entirely forgotten, seem not
to merit the honor of being in his list. We have
thought it right not to omit St. Dionysius, surnamed
the Areopagite, who is pretended to have been for
a long time the disciple of St. Paul, and of one
Hierotheus, an unknown companion of his. He
was, it is said, consecrated bishop of Athens by St.
Paul himself. It is stated in his life that he went
to Jerusalem to pay a visit to the holy Virgin and
that he found her so beautiful and majestic that he
was strongly tempted to adore her.

After having a long time governed the Church of
Athens he went to confer with St. John the evange-
list, at Ephesus, and afterwards with Pope Clement
at Rome ; thence he went to exercise his apostleship
in France ; and knowing, says the historian, that
Paris was a rich, populous, and abundant town, and

1 1 6 Philosophical

like other capitals, he went there to plant a citadel,
to lay hell and infidelity in ruins.

He was regarded for a long time as the first
bishop of Paris. Harduinus, one of his historians,
adds that at Paris he was exposed to wild beasts,
but, having made the sign of the cross on them, they
crouched at his feet. The pagan Parisians then
threw him into a hot oven from which he walked out
fresh and in perfect health ; he was crucified and he
began to preach from the top of the cross.

They imprisoned him with his companions Rusti-
cus and Eleutherus. He there said mass, St. Rusti-
cus performing the part of deacon and Eleutherus
that of subdeacon. Finally they were all three car-
ried to Montmartre, where their heads were cut off,
after which they no longer said mass.

But, according to Harduinus, there appeared a
still greater miracle. The body of St. Dionysius
took its head in its hands and accompanied by an-
gels singing "Gloria tibi, Domine, alleluia!" carried
it as far as the place where they afterwards built
him a church, which is the famous church of St.
Denis.

Mestaphrastus, Harduinus, and Hincmar, bishop
of Rheims, say that he was martyred at the age of
ninety-one years, but Cardinal Baronius proves that
he was a hundred and ten, in which opinion he is
supported by Ribadeneira, the learned author of
"Flower of the Saints." For our own part we have
no opinion on the subject.

Dictionary. 117

Seventeen works are attributed to him, six of
which we have unfortunately lost ; the eleven which
remain to us have been translated from the Greek
by Duns Scotus, Hugh de St. Victor, Albert Mag-
nus, and several other illustrious scholars.

It is true that since wholesome criticism has been
introduced into the world it has been discovered
that all the books attributed to Dionysius were writ-
ten by an impostor in the year 362 of our era, so that
there no longer remains any difficulty on that head.

Of the Great Eclipse Noticed by Dionysius.

A fact related by one of the unknown authors of
the life of Dionysius has, above all, caused greai
dissension among the learned. It is pretended that
this first bishop of Paris, being in Egypt in the town
of Diospolis, or No-Amon, at the age of twenty-
five years, before he was a Christian, he was there,
with one of his friends, witness of the famous eclipse
of the sun which happened at the full moon, at the
death of Jesus Christ and that he cried in Greek,
"Either God suffers or is afflicted at the sufferings
of the criminal."

These words have been differently related by dif-
ferent authors, but in the time of Eusebius of
C?esarea it is pretended that two historians — the one
named Phlegon and the other Thallus — had made
mention of this miraculous eclipse. Eusebius of
Csesarea quotes Phlegon, but we have none of his
works now existing. He said — at least it is pre-

1 1 8 Philosophical

tended so — that this eclipse happened in the fourth
year of the two hundredth Olympiad, which would
be the eighteenth year of Tiberius's reign. There
are several versions of this anecdote ; we distrust
them all and much more so, if it were possible to
know whether they reckoned by Olympiads in the
time of Phlegon, which is very doubtful.

This important calculation interested all the as-
tronomers. Hodgson, Whiston, Gale, Maurice, and
the famous Halley, demonstrated that there was no
eclipse of the sun in this first year, but that on No-
vember 24th in the year of the hundred and second
Olympiad an eclipse took place which obscured the
sun for two minutes, at a quarter past one, at Jeru-
salem.

It has been carried still further : a Jesuit named
Greslon pretended that the Chinese preserved in
their annals the account of an eclipse which hap-
pened near that time, contrary to the order of nature.
They desired the mathematicians of Europe to make
a calculation of it; it was pleasant enough to de-
sire the astronomists to calculate an eclipse which
was not natural. Finally it was discovered that
these Chinese annals do not in any way speak of this
eclipse.

It appears from the history of St. Dionysius the
Areopagite, the passage from Phlegon, and from the
letter of the Jesuit Greslon that men like to impose
upon one another. But this prodigious multitude of
lies, far from harming the Christian religion, only

Dictionary. 1 1 9

serves, on the contrary, to show its divinity, since it
is more confirmed every day in spite of them.

DIODORUS OF SICILY, AND HERODOTUS.

We will commence with Herodotus as the most
ancient. When Henry Stephens entitled his comic
rhapsody "The Apology of Herodotus," we know
that his design was not to justify the tales of this
father of history ; he only sports with us and shows
that the enormities of his own times were worse than
those of the Egyptians and Persians. He made use
of the liberty which the Protestants assumed against
those of the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman
churches. He sharply reproaches them with their
debaucheries, their avarice, their crimes expiated
by money, their indulgences publicly sold in the
taverns, and the false relics manufactured by their
own monks, calling them idolaters. He ventures to
say that if the Egyptians adored cats and onions,
the Catholics adore the bones of the dead. He dares
to call them in his preliminary discourses, "theoph-
ages," and even "theokeses." We have fourteen
editions of this book, for we relish general abuse,
just as much as we resent that which we deem spe-
cial and personal.

Henry Stephens made use of Herodotus only to
render us hateful and ridiculous ; we have quite a
contrary design. We pretend to show that the mod-
ern histories of our good authors since Guicciardini

1 20 Philosophical

are in general as wise and true as those of Herodo-
tus and Diodorus are foolish and fabulous.

1. What does the father of history mean by say-
ing in the beginning of his work, "the Persian his-
torians relate that the Phoenicians were the authors
of all the wars. From the Red Sea they entered
ours," etc.? It would seem that the Phoenicians,
having embarked at the Isthmus of Suez, arrived at
the straits of Babel-Mandeb, coasted along Ethiopia,
passed the line, doubled the Cape of Tempests, since
called the Cape of Good Hope, returned between
Africa and America, repassed the line and entered
from the ocean into the Mediterranean by the Pil-
lars of Hercules, a voyage of more than four thou-
sand of our long marine leagues at a time when nav-
igation was in its infancy,

2. The first exploit of the Phoenicians was to go
towards Argos to carry ofif the daughter of King
Inachus, after which the Greeks, in their turn, car-
ried ofif Europa, the daughter of the king of Tyre.

3. Immediately afterwards comes Candaules,
king of Lydia, who, meeting with one of his guards
named Gyges, said to him, "Thou must see my wife
quite naked ; it is absolutely essential." The queen,
learning that she had been thus exposed, said to the
soldier, "You shall either die or assassinate my hus-
band and reign with me." He chose the latter alter-
native, and the assassination was accomplished with-
out difficulty.

4. Then follows the history of Arion, carried on

Dictionary. lai

the back of a dolphin across the sea from the skirts
of Calabria to Cape Matapan, an extraordinary voy-
age of about a hundred leagues,

5. From tale to tale — and who dislikes tales ? —
we arrive at the infallible oracle of Delphi, which
somehow foretold that Croesus would cook a quar-
ter of lamb and a tortoise in a copper pan and that
he would be dethroned by a mullet.

6. Among the inconceivable absurdities with
which ancient history abounds is there anything ap-
proaching the famine with which the Lydians were
tormented for twenty-eight years? This people,
whom Herodotus describes as being richer in gold
than the Peruvians, instead of buying food from for-
eigners, found no better expedient than that of
amusing themselves every other day with the ladies
without eating for eight-and-twenty successive
years.

7. Is there anything more marvellous than the
history of Cyrus ? His grandfather, the Mede Asty-
ages, with a Greek name, dreamed that his daughter
Mandane — another Greek name — inundated all
Asia ; at another time, that she produced a vine, of
which all Asia ate the grapes, and thereupon the
good man Astyages ordered one Harpagos, another
Greek, to murder his grandson Cyrus — for what
grandfather would not kill his posterity after dreams
of this nature?

8. Herodotus, no less a good naturalist than an
exact historian, does not fail to tell us that near

122 Philosophical

Babylon the earth produced three hundred ears of
wheat for one. I know a small country which yields
three for one. I should like to have been transported
to Diabek when the Turks were driven from it by
Catherine II. It has fine corn also but returns not
three hundred ears for one.

9. What has always seemed to me decent and
edifying in Herodotus is the fine religious custom
established in Babylon of which we have already
spoken — that of all the married women going to
prostitute themselves in the temple of Mylitta for
money, to the first stranger who presented himself.
We reckon two millions of inhabitants in this city ;
the devotion must have been ardent. This law is
very probable among the Orientals who have always
shut up their women, and who, more than six ages
before Herodotus, instituted eunuchs to answer to
them for the chastity of their wives. I must no
longer proceed numerically; we should very soon
indeed arrive at a hundred.

All that Diodorus of Sicily says seven centuries
after Herodotus is of the same value in all that re-
gards antiquities and physics. The Abbe Terrasson
said, "I translate the text of Diodorus in all its
coarseness." He sometimes read us part of it at the
house of de Lafaye, and when we laughed, he said,
"You are resolved to misconstrue ; it was quite the
contrary with Dacier."

The finest part of Diodorus is the charming de-
scription of the island of Panchaica — "Panchaica

Dictionary. 1 23

Tellus," celebrated by Virgil : "There were groves
of odoriferous trees as far as the eye could see,
myrrh and frankincense to furnish the whole world
without exhausting it ; fountains, which formed an
infinity of canals, bordered with flowers, besides un-
known birds, which sang under the eternal shades ;
a temple of marble four thousand feet long, orna-
mented with columns, colossal statues," etc.

This puts one in mind of the Duke de la Ferte,
who, to flatter the taste of the Abbe Servien, said to
him one day, "Ah, if you had seen my son who died
at fifteen years of age ! What eyes ! what freshness
of complexion ! what an admirable stature ! the An-
tinous of Belvidere compared to him was only like
a Chinese baboon, and as to sweetness of manners,
he had the most engaging I ever met with." The
Abbe Servien melted, the duke of Ferte, warmed by
his own words, melted also, both began to weep,
after which he acknowledged that he never had a
son.

A certain Abbe Bazin, with his simple common
sense, doubts another tale of Diodorus. It is of a
king of Egypt, Sesostris, who probably existed no
more than the island of Panchaica. The father of
Sesostris, who is not named, determined on the day
that he was born that he would make him the con-
queror of all the earth as soon as he was of age.
It was a notable project. For this purpose he
brought up with him all the boys who were born on
the same day in Egypt, and, to make them conquer-

1 24 Philosophical

ors, he did not suffer them to have their breakfasts
until they had run a hundred and eighty stadia,
which is about eight of our long leagues.

When Sesostris was of age he departed with his
racers to conquer the world. They were then about
seventeen hundred and probably half were dead, ac-
cording to the ordinary course of nature — and,
above all, of the nature of Egypt, which was deso-
lated by a destructive plague at least once in ten
years.

There must have been three thousand four hun-
dred boys born in Egypt on the same day as Sesos-
tris, and as nature produces almost as many girls
as boys, there must have been six thousand persons
at least born on that day. But women were confined
every day, and six thousand births a day produce,
at the end of the year, two millions one hundred and
ninety thousand children. If you multiply by thirty-
four, according to the rule of Kersseboom, you would
have in Egypt more than seventy-four millions of
inhabitants in a country which is not so large as
Spain or France.

All this appeared monstrous to the Abbe Bazin,
who had seen a little of the world, and who judged
only by what he had seen.

But one Larcher, who was never outside of the
college of Mazarin arrayed himself with great ani-
mation on the side of Sesostris and his runners. He
pretends that Herodotus, in speaking of the Greeks,
does not reckon by the stadia of Greece, and that the

Dictionary. 125

heroes of Sesostris only ran four leagues before
breakfast. He overwhelms poor Abbe Bazin with
injurious names such as no scholar in iis or es had
ever before employed. He does not hold with the
seventeen hundred boys, but endeavors to prove by
the prophets that the wives, daughters, and nieces of
the king of Babylon, of the satraps, and the magi,
resorted, out of pure devotion, to sleep for money in
the aisles of the temple of Babylon with all the
camel-drivers and muleteers of Asia. He treats all
those who defend the honor of the ladies of Baby-
lon as bad Christians, condemned souls, and enemies
to the state.

He also takes the part of the goat, so much in
the good graces of the young female Egyptians. It
is said that his great reason was that he was allied,
by the female side, to a relation of the bishop of
Meaux, Bossuet, the author of an eloquent dis-
course on "Universal History" ; but this is not a
peremptory reason.

Take care of the extraordinary stories of all
kinds. Diodorus of Sicily was the greatest compiler
of these tales. This Sicilian had not a grain of the
temper of his countryman Archimedes, who sought
and found so many mathematical truths.

Diodorus seriously examines the history of the
Amazons and their queen Theaestris ; the history
of the Gorgons, who fought against the Amazons ;
that of the Titans, and that of all the gods. He
searches into the history of Priapus and Hermaph-

1 26 Philosophical

roditus. No one could give a better account of
Hercules : this hero wandered through half the
earth, sometimes on foot and alone like a pilgrim,
and sometimes like a general at the head of a great
army, and all his labors are faithfully discussed,
but this is nothing in comparison with the gods of
Crete.

Diodorus justifies Jupiter from the reproach
which other grave historians have passed upon him,
of having dethroned and mutilated his father. He
shows how Jupiter fought the giants, some in his
island, others in Phrygia, and afterwards in Mace-
donia and Italy; the number of children which he
had by his sister Juno and his favorites are not
omitted.

He describes how he afterwards became a god,
and the supreme god. It is thus that all the ancient
histories have been w^ritten. What is more remark-
able, they were sacred ; if they had not been sacred,
they would never have been read.

It is clear that it would be very useful if in all
they w'ere all different, and from province to prov-
ince, and island to island, each had a different his-
tory of the gods, demi-gods, and heroes, from that
of their neighbors. But it should also be observed
that the people never fought for this mythology.

The respectable history of Thucydides, which has
several glimmerings of truth, begins at Xerxes, but,
before that epoch how much time was wasted.

Dictionary, 127

DIRECTOR.

It is neither of a director of finances, a director
of hospitals, nor a director of the royal buildings
that I pretend to speak, but of a director of con-
science, for that directs all the others : it is the pre-
ceptor of human kind ; it knows and teaches all that
should be done or omitted in all possible cases.

It is clear that it would be very useful if in all
courts there were one conscientious man whom the
monarch secretly consulted on most occasions, and
who would boldly say, "Non licet." Louis the Just
would not then have begun his mischievous and un-
happy reign by assassinating his first minister and
imprisoning his mother. How many wars, unjust
as fatal, a few good dictators would have spared!
How many cruelties they would have prevented !

But often, while intending to consult a lamb, we
consult a fox. Tartuffe was the director of Orgon.
I should like to know who was the conscientious di-
rector of the massacre of St. Bartholomew.

The gospel speaks no more of directors than of
confessors. Among the people whom our ordinary
courtesy calls Pagans we do not see that Scipio,
Fabricius, Cato, Titus, Trajan, or the Antonines had
directors. It is well to have a scrupulous friend to
remind you of your duty. But your conscience
ought to be the chief of your council.

A Huguenot was much surprised when a Catho-
lic lady told him that she had a confessor to absolve

128 Philosophical

her from her sins and a director to prevent her com-
mitting them. "How can your vessel so often go
astray, madam," said he, "having two such good
pilots?"

The learned observe that it is not the privilege of
every one to have a director. It is like having an
equerry; it only belongs to ladies of quality. The
Abbe Gobelin, a litigious and covetous man, directed
Madame de Maintenon only. The directors of Paris
often serve four or five devotees at once; they em-
broil them with their husbands, sometimes with their
lovers, and occasionally fill the vacant places.

Why have the women directors and the men
none ? It was possibly owing to this distinction that
Mademoiselle de la Valliere became a Carmelite
when she was quitted by Louis XIV., and that M.
de Turenne, being betrayed by Madame de Coet-
quin, did not make himself a monk.

St. Jerome, and Rufinus his antagonist, were
great directors of women and girls. They did not
find a Roman senator or a military tribune to gov-
ern. These people profited by the devout facility of
the feminine gender. The men had too much beard
on their chins and often too much strength of mind
for them. Boileau has given the portrait of a direc-
tor in his "Satire on Women," but might have said
something much more to the purpose.

Dictionary. 1 29

DISPUTES.

There have been disputes at all times, on all
subjects : — "Mundum tradidit dispiitationi eorum."
There have been violent quarrels about whether the
whole is greater than a part ; whether a body can be
in several places at the same time; whether the
v/hiteness of snow can exist without snow, or
the sweetness of sugar without sugar ; whether there
can be thinking without a head, etc.

I doubt not that as soon as a Jansenist shall have
written a book to demonstrate that one and two are
three, a Molinist will start up and demonstrate that
two and one are five.

We hope to please and instruct the reader by
laying before him the following verses on "Dispu-
tation." They are well known to every man of taste
in Paris, but they are less familiar to those among
the learned who still dispute on gratuitous predesti-
nation, concomitant grace, and that momentous
question — whether the mountains were produced by
the sea.

ON DISPUTATION.

Each brain its thought, each season has its mode;

Manners and fashions alter every day;

Examine for yourself what others say; —
This privilege by nature is bestowed; —
But, oh! dispute not — the designs of heaven
To mortal insight never can be given.
What is the knowledge of this world worth knowing?
What, but a bubble scarcely worth the blowing?
"Quite full of errors was the world before;"
Then, to preach reason is but one error more.
Vol. 8—9

130 Philosophical

Viewing this earth from Luna's elevation,
Or any other convenient situation,
What shall we see? The various tricks of man-.
Here is a synod — there is a divan;
Behold the mufti, dervish, iman, bonze.
The lama and the pope on equal thrones.
The modern doctor and the ancient rabbi,
The monk, the priest, and the expectant abb6:
If you are disputants, my friends, pray travel —
When you come home again, you'll cease to cavil.

That wild Ambition should lay waste the earth,
Or Beauty's glance give civil discord birth;
That, in our courts of equity, a suit
Should hang in doubt till ruin is the fruit;
That an old country priest should deeply groan.
To see a benefice he'd thought his own
Borne off by a court abbe; that a poet
Should feel most envy when he least should show it;
And, when another's play the public draws.
Should grin damnation while he claps applause;
With this, and more, the human heart is fraught —
But whence the rage to rule another's thought;
Say, wherefore — in what way — can you design
To make j'i'z^r judgment give the law to juinef

But chiefly I detest those tiresome elves.
Half-learned critics, worshipping themselves.
Who, with the utmost weight of all their lead,
Maintain against you what yourself have said;
Philosophers — and poets — and musicians —
Great statesmen — deep in third and fourth editions —
They know all — read all— and (the greatest curse)
They iaik of all — from politics to verse;
On points of taste they'll contradict Voltaire;
In law e'en Montesquieu they will not spare;
They'll tutor Broglio in affairs of arms;
And teach the charming d'Egmont higher charms.
See them, alike in great and small things clever,
Replying constantly, though answering never;
Hear them assert, repeat, affirm, aver.
Wax wroth. And wherefore all this mighty stir?
This the great theme that agitates their breast —
Which of two wretched rhymesters rhymes the best?

Pray, gentle reader, did you chance to know
One Monsieur d'Aube, who died not long ago?
One whom the disputatious mania woke
Early each morning? If, by chance, you spoke

Dictionary. 131

Of your own part in some well-fought affair,

Better than you he knew how, when, and where;

What though your own the deed and the renown?

His " letters from the army" put you down;

E'en Richelieu he'd have told— if he attended —

How Mahon fell, or Genoa was defended.

Although he wanted neither wit nor sense,

His every visit gave his friends offence;

I've seen him, raving in a hot dispute,

Exhaust their logic, force them to be mute.

Or, if their patience were entirely spent,

Rush from the room to give their passion vent.

His kinsmen, whom his property allured.

At last were wearied, though they long endured.

His neighbors, less athletic than himself,

For health's sake laid him wholly on the shelf.

Thus, 'midst his many virtues, this one failing

Brought his old age to solitary wailing; —

For solitude to him was deepest woe —

A sorrow which the peaceful ne'er can know

At length, to terminate his cureless grief,

A mortal fever came to his relief.

Caused by the great, the overwhelming pang,

Of hearing in the church a long harangue

Without the privilege of contradiction;

So, yielding to this crowning dire affliction.

His spirit fled. But, in the grasp of death,

'Twas some small solace, with his parting breath,

To indulge once more his ruling disposition

By arguing with the priest and the physician.

Oh! may the Eternal goodness grant him now
The rest he ne'er to mortals would allow!
If, even there, he like not disputation
Better than uncontested, calm salvation.

But see, my friends, this bold defiance made
To every one of the disputing trade.
With a young bachelor their skill to try;
And God's own essence shall the theme supply.

Come and behold, as on the theatric stage,
The pitched encounter, the contending rage;
Dilemmas, enthymemes, in close array —
Two-edged weapons, cutting either way;
The strong-built syllogism's pondering might.
The sophism's vain ignis fatuus light;
Hot-headed monks, whom all the doctors dread,
And poor Hibernians arguing for their bread,

132 Philosophical

Fleeing their country's miseries and morasses
To live at Paris on disputes and masses;
While the good public lend their strict attention
To what soars far above their sober comprehension.

Is, then, all arguing frivolous or absurd?
Was Socrates himself not sometimes heard
To hold an argument amidst a feast?
E'en naked in the bath he hardly ceased.
Was this a failing in his mental vision?
Genius is sure discovered by collision;
The cold hard flint by one quick blow is fired; —
Fit emblem of the close and the retired,
Who, in the keen dispute struck o'er and o'er,
Acquire a sudden warmth unfelt before.

All this, I grant, is good. But mark the ill:
Men by disputing have grown blinder still.
The crooked mind is like the squinting eye:
How can you make it see iise/f awryl
Who's in the wrong? Will any answer " I "?
Our words, our efforts, are an idle breath;
Each hugs his darling notion until death;
Opinions ne'er are altered; all we do
Is, to arouse conflicting passions, too.
Not truth itself should always find a tongue;
" To be too stanchly right, is to be wrong."

In earlier days, by vice and crime unstained.
Justice and Truth, two naked sisters, reigned;
But long since fled — as every one can tell —
Justice to heaven and Truth into a well.

Now vain Opinion governs every age,
And fills poor mortals with fantastic rage.
Her airy temple floats upon the clouds;
Gods, demons, antic sprites, in countless crowds.
Around her throne — a strange and motley mask —
Ply busily their never-ceasing task,
To hold up to mankind's admiring gaze
A thousand nothings in a thousand ways;
While, wafted on by all the winds that blow,
Away the temple and the goddess go.
A mortal, as her course uncertain turns,
To-day is worshipped, and to-morrow burns.
We scoff, that young Antinous once had priests;
We think our ancestors were worse than beasts;
And he who treats each modern custom ill,
Does but what future ages surely will.
What female face has Venus smiled upon?
The Frenchman turns with rapture to Brionne,

Dictionary. 133

Nor can believe that men were wont to bow

To golden tresses and a narrow brow.

And thus is vagabond Opinion seen

To sway o'er Beauty — this world's other queen!

How can we hope, then, that she e'er will quit
Her vapory throne, to seek some sage's feet.
And Truth from her deep hiding-place remove,
Once more to witness what is done above?

And for the learned — even for the wise —
Another snare of false delusion lies;
That rage for systems, which, in dreamy thought,
Frames magic universes out of naught;
Building ten errors on one truth's foundation.
So he who taught the art of calculation.
In one of these illusive mental slumbers.
Foolishly sought the Deity in numbers;
The first mechanic, from as wild a notion,
Would rule man's freedom by the laws of motion.
This globe, says one, is an extinguished sun;

No, says another, 'tis a globe of glass;
And when the fierce contention's once begun,

Book upon book — a vast and useless mass —
On Science's altar are profusely strewn,
While Disputation sits on Wisdom's throne.

And then, from contrarieties of speech.
What countless feuds have sprung! For you may teach.
In the same words, two doctrines different quite
As day from darkness, or as wrong from right.
This has indeed been man's severest curse;
Famine and pestilence have not been worse.
Nor e'er have matched the ills whose aggravations
Have scourged the world through misinterpretations.

How shall I paint the conscientious strife?

The holy transports of each heavenly soul —
Fanaticism wasting human life

With torch, with dagger, and with poisoned bow;
The ruined hamlet and the blazing town,

Homes desolate, and parents massacred.

And temples in the Almighty's honor reared
The scene of acts that merit most his frown!
Rape, murder, pillage, in one frightful storm,

Pleasure with carnage horribly combined,

The brutal ravisher amazed to find
A sister in his victim's dying form!

134 Philosophical

Sons by their fathers to the scaffold led;
The vanquished always numbered with the dead.
Oh, God, permit that all the ills we know
May one day pass for merely fabled woe!

But see, an angry disputant steps forth —

His humble mien a proud heart ill conceals
In holy guise inclining to the earth.

Offering to God the venom he distils,
" Beneath all this a dangerous poison lies;

So — every man is neither right nor wrong,
And, since we never can be truly wise.

By instinct only should be driven along."
"Sir, I've not said a word to that effect."

" It's true, you've artfully disguised your meaning."
" But, Sir, my judgment ever is correct."

" Sir.in this case, 'tis rather overweening.
Let truth be sought, but let all passion yield;

' Discussion's right, and disputation's wrong;'
This have I said — and that at court, in field.

Or town, one often should restrain one's tongue."
" But, my dear Sir, you've still a double sense;

I can distinguish — " "Sir, with all my heart;
I've told my thoughts with all due deference.

And crave the like indulgence on your part."
"My son, all 'thinking' is a grievous crime;
So I'll denounce you without loss of time."

Blest would be they who, from fanatic power,

From carping censors, envious critics, free,

O'er Helicon might roam in liberty.
And unmolested pluck each fragrant flower!
So does the farmer, in his healthy fields.

Far from the ills in swarming towns that spring.
Taste the pure joys that our existence yields,

Extract the honey and escape the sting.

DISTANCE.

A MAN who knows how to reckon the paces from
one end of his house to the other might imagine that
nature had all at once taught him this distance and
that he has only need of a coup d'ceil, as in the case
of colors. He is deceived; the different distances
of objects can be known only by experience, compar-

Dictionary. 135

<son, and habit. It is that which makes a sailor, on
xeeing a vessel afar off, able to say without hesita-
\ion what distance his own vessel is from it, of
which distance a passenger would only form a very
confused idea.

Distance is only the line from a given object to
ourselves. This line terminates at a point; and
whether the object be a thousand leagues from us
or only a foot, this point is always the same to our
eyes.

We have then no means of directly perceiving
distances, as we have of ascertaining by the touch
whether a body is hard or soft; by the taste, if it is
bitter or sweet ; or by the ear, whether of two sounds
the one is grave and the other lively. For if I duly
notice, the parts of a body which give way to my
fingers are the immediate cause of my sensation of
softness, and the vibrations of the air, excited by the
sonorous body, are the immediate cause of my sen-
sation of sound. But as I cannot have an immediate
idea of distance I must find it out by means of an
intermediate idea, but it is necessary that this inter-
mediate idea be clearly understood, for it is only by
the medium of things known that we can acquire a
notion of things unknown.

I am told that such a house is distant a mile from
such a river, but if I do not know where this river
is I certainly do not know where the house is situ-
ated. A body yields easily to the impression of my
hand : I conclude immediately that it is soft. An-

136 Philosophical

other resists, I feel at once its hardness. I ought
therefore to feel the angles formed in my eye in
order to determine the distance of objects. But
most men do not even know that these angles exist ;
it is evident, therefore, that they cannot be the im-
mediate cause of our ascertaining distances.

He who, for the first time in his life, hears the
noise of a cannon or the sound of a concert, cannot
judge whether the cannon be fired or the concert be
performed at the distance of a league or of twenty
paces. He has only the experience which accustoms
him to judge of the distance between himself and the
place whence the noise proceeds. The vibrations,
the undulations of the air carry a sound to his ears,
or rather to his sensorium, but this noise no more
carries to his sensorium the place whence it pro-
ceeds than it teaches him the form of the cannon or
of the musical instruments. It is the same thing
precisely with regard to the rays of light which pro-
ceed from an object, but which do not at all inform
us of its situation.

Neither do they inform us more immediately of
magnitude or form. I see from afar a little round
tower. I approach, perceive, and touch a great
quadrangular building. Certainly, this which I now
see and touch cannot be that which I saw before.
The little round tower which was before my eyes
cannot be this large, square building. One thing in
relation to us is the measurable and tangible object ;
another, the visible object. I hear from my cham-

Dictionarv.

•J/

ber the noise of a carriage, I open my window and
see it. I descend and enter it. Yet this carriage
that I have heard, this carriage that I have seen, and
this carriage which I have touched are three objects
absolutely distinct to three of my senses, which have
no immediate relation to one another.

Further; it is demonstrated that there is fonned
in my eye an angle a degree larger when a thing is
near, when I see a man four feet from me than when
I see the same man at a distance of eight feet. How-
ever. I always see this man of the same size. How
does my mind thus contradict the mechanism of my
organs? The object is really a degree smaller to
my eyes, and yet I see it the same. It is in vain
that we anempt to explain this myster}- by the route
which the rays follow or by the form taken by the
cnstalhne humor of the eye. ^^'hatever may be
supposed to the contran-, the angle at which I see a
man at four feet from me is always nearly double the
angle at which I see him at eight feet. Neither
geometry- nor physics will explain this difficulty.

These geometrical lines and angles are not really
more the cause of our seeing objects in their proper
places than that we see them of a certain size and
at a certain distance. The mind does not consider
that if this part were to be painted at the bottom of
the eye it could collect nothing from lines that it saw
not. The eye looks down only to see that which is
near the ground, and is uplifted to see that which
is above the earth. All this might be explained and

138 Philosophical

placed beyond dispute by any person born blind, to
whom the sense of sight was afterwards attained.
For if this blind man, the moment that he opens his
eyes, can correctly judge of distances, dimensions,
and situations, it would be true that the optical an-
gles suddenly formed in his retina were the imme-
diate cause of his decisions. Doctor Berkeley as-
serts, after Locke — going even further than Locke —
that neither situation, magnitude, distance, nor fig-
ure would be discerned by a blind man thus sud-
denly gifted with sight.

In fact, a man born blind was found in 1729,
by whom this question was indubitably decided. The
famous Cheselden, one of those celebrated surgeons
who join manual skill to the most enlightened minds,
imagined that he could give sight to this blind
man by couching, and proposed the operation. The
patient was with great difficulty brought to consent
to it. He did not conceive that the sense of sight
could much augment his pleasures, except that he
desired to be able to read and to write, he cared in-
deed little about seeing. He proved by this indif-
ference that it is impossible to be rendered unhappy
by the privation of pleasures of which we have never
formed an idea — a very important truth. However
this may be, the operation was performed, and suc-
ceeded. This young man at fourteen years of age
saw the light for the first time, and his experience
confirmed all that Locke and Berkeley had so ably
foreseen. For a long time he distinguished neither

Dictionary. 139

dimensions, distance, nor form. An object about the
size of an inch, which was placed before his eyes,
and which concealed a house from him, appeared as
large as the house itself. All that he saw seemed
to touch his eyes, and to touch them as objects of
feeling touch the skin. He could not at first distin-
guish that which, by the aid of his hands, he had
thought round from that which he had supposed
square, nor could he discern with his eyes if that
which his hands had felt to be tall and short were so
in reality. He was so far from knowing anything
about magnitude that after having at last conceived
by his sight that his house was larger than his cham-
ber, he could not conceive how sight could give him
this idea. It Vv^as not until after two months' expe-
rience he could discover that pictures represented
existing bodies, and when, after this long develop-
ment of his new sense in him, he perceived that bod-
ies, and not surfaces only, were painted in the pic-
tures, he took them in his hands and was astonished
at not finding those solid bodies of which he had be-
gun to perceive the representation, and demanded
which was the deceived, the sense of feeling or that
of sight.

Thus was it irrevocably decided that the manner
in which we see things follows not immediately
from the angles formed in the eye. These mathe-
matical angles were in the eyes of this man the same
as in our own and were of no use to him without the
help of experience and of his other senses.

140 Philosophical

The adventure of the man born blind was known
in France towards the year 1735. The author of the
"Elements of Newton," who had seen a great deal
of Cheselden, made mention of this important dis-
covery, but did not take much notice of it. And
even when the same operation of the cataract was
performed at Paris on a young man who was said
to have been deprived of sight from his cradle, the
operators neglected to attend to the daily develop-
ment of the sense of sight in him and to the progress
of nature. The fruit of this operation was therefore
lost to philosophy.

How do we represent to ourselves dimensions
and distances ? In the same manner that we imagine
the passions of men by the colors with which they
vary their countenances, and by the alteration which
they make in their features. There is no person who
cannot read joy or grief on the countenance of an-
other. It is the language that nature addresses to
all eyes, but experience only teaches this language.
Experience alone teaches us that, when an object is
too far, we see it confusedly and weakly, and thence
we form ideas, which always afterwards accom-
pany the sensation of sight. Thus every man who
at ten paces sees his horse five feet high, if, some
minutes after, he sees this horse of the size of a
sheep, by an involuntary judgment immediately con-
cludes that the horse is much farther from him.

It is very true that when I see my horse of the
size of a sheep a much smaller picture is formed in

Dictionary. 141

my eye — a more acute angle; but it is a fact which
accompanies, not causes, my opinion. In like man-
ner, it makes a different impression on my brain,
when I see a man blush from shame and from
anger; but these different impressions would tell
me nothing of what was passing in this man's mind,
without experience, whose voice alone is attended to.
So far from the angle being the immediate cause
of my thinking that a horse is far off when I see
it very small, it happens that I see my horse equally
large at ten, twenty, thirty, or forty paces, though
the angle at ten paces may be double, treble, or
quadruple. I see at a distance, through a small
hole, a man posted on the top of a house; the re-
moteness and fewness of the rays at first prevent
me from distinguishing that it is a man; the object
appears to me very small. I think I see a statue
two feet high at most; the object moves; I then
judge that it is a man; and from that instant the
man appears to me of his ordinary size. Whence
come these two judgments so different? When I
believed that I saw a statue, I imagined it to be two
feet high, because I saw it at such an angle; ex-
perience had not led my mind to falsify the traits
imprinted on my retina ; but as soon as I judged
that it was a man, the association established in my
mind by experience between a man and his known
height of five or six feet, involuntarily obliged me
to imagine that I saw one of a certain height ; or, in
fact, that I saw the height itself.

142 Philosophical

It must therefore be absolutely concluded, that
distance, dimension, and situation are not, properly
speaking, visible things ; that is to say, the proper
and immediate objects of sight. The proper and
immediate object of sight is nothing but colored
Hght ; all the rest we only discover by long ac-
quaintance and experience. We learn to see pre-
cisely as we learn to speak and to read. The dif-
ference is, that the art of seeing is more easy, and
that nature is equally mistress oi all.

The sudden and almost uniform judgments
which, at a certain age, our minds form of distance,
dimension, and situation, make us think that we
have only to open our eyes to see in the manner in
which we do see. We are deceived ; it requires the
help of the other senses. If men had only the sense
of sight, they would have no means of knowing
extent in length, breadth, and depth, and a pure
spirit perhaps would not know it, unless God re-
vealed it to him. It is very difficult, in our under-
standing, to separate the extent of an object from
its color. We never see anything but what is ex-
tended, and from that we are led to believe that we
really see the extent. We can scarcely distinguish in
our minds the yellow that we see in a louis d'or
from the louis d'or in which we see the yellow. In
the same manner, as when we hear the word "louis
d'or" pronounced, we cannot help attaching the idea
of the money to the word which we hear spoken.

Dictionary. 143

If all men spoke the same language, we should
be always ready to believe in a necessary connection
between words and ideas. But all men in fact do
possess the same language of imagination. Nature
says to them all : When you have seen colors for
a certain time, imagination will represent the bodies
to which these colors appear attached to all alike.
This prompt and summary judgment once attained
will be of use to you during your life ; for if to es-
timate the distances, magnitudes, and situations of
all that surrounds you, it were necessary to examine
the visual angles and rays, you would be dead be-
fore you had ascertained whether the things of
which you have need were ten paces from you or a
hundred thousand leagues, and whether they were
of a size of a worm or of a mountain. It would be
better to be born blind.

We are then, perhaps, very wrong, when we say
that our senses deceive us. Every one of our
senses performs the function for which it was des-
tined by nature. They mutually aid one another to
convey to our minds, through the medium of ex-
perience, the measure of knowledge that our being
allows. We ask from our senses what they are not
made to give us. We would have our eyes acquaint
us with solidity, dimension, distance, etc. ; but it is
necessary for the touch to agree for that purpose
with the sight, and that experience should second
both. If Father Malebranche had looked at this

144 Philosophical

side of nature, he would perhaps have attributed
fewer errors to our senses, which are the only
sources of all our ideas.

We should not, however, extend this species of
metaphysics to every case before us. We should
only call it to our aid when the mathematics are in-
sufficient.

DIVINITY OF JESUS.

The Socinians, who are regarded as blasphemers,
do not recognize the divinity of Jesus Christ. They
dare to pretend, with the philosophers of antiquity,
with the Jews, the Mahometans, and most other
nations, that the idea of a god-man is monstrous;
that the distance from God to man is infinite ; and
that it is impossible for a perishable body to be in-
finite, immense, or eternal.

They have the confidence to quote Eusebius,
bishop of Caesarea, in their favor, who, in his "Ec-
clesiastical History," i., 9, declares that it is ab-
surd to imagine the uncreated and unchangeable
nature of Almighty God taking the form of a man.
They cite the fathers of the Church, Justin and Ter-
tuUian, who have said the same thing: Justin, in
his "Dialogue with Triphonius"; and Tertullian, in
his "Discourse against Praxeas."

They quote St. Paul, who never calls Jesus Christ
"God," and who calls Him "man" very often. They
carry their audacity so far as to affirm that the
Christians passed three entire ages in forming by

Dictionary, 145

degrees the apotheosis of Jesus ; and that they only
raised this astonishing edifice by the example of the
pagans, who had deified mortals. At first, accord-
ing to them, Jesus was only regarded as a man in-
spired by God, and then as a creature more perfect
than others. They gave Him some time after a
place above the angels, as St. Paul tells us. Every
day added to His greatness. He in time became an
emanation, proceeding from God. This was not
enough; He was even born before time. At last
He was made God consubstantial with God. Crel-
lius, Voquelsius, Natalis Alexander, and Horneck
have supported all these blasphemies by arguments
which astonish the wise and mislead the weak.
Above all, Faustus Socinus spread the seeds of this
doctrine in Europe ; and at the end of the sixteenth
century a new species of Christianity was estab-
lished. There were already more than three hun-
dred.

DIVORCE.

In the article on "Divorce," in the "Encyclo-
paedia," it is said that the custom of divorce having
been brought into Gaul by the Romans, it was there-
fore that Basine, or Bazine, quitted the king of
Thuringia, her husband, in order to follow Chil-
deric, who married her. Why not say that because
the Trojans established the custom of divorce in
Sparta, Helen repudiated Menelaus according to
law, to run away with Paris into Phrygia?

Vol. 8—10

146 Philosophical

The agreeable fable of Paris, and the ridiculous
one of Childeric, who never was king of France,
and who it is pretended carried off Bazine, the wife
of Bazin, have nothing to do with the law of divorce.

They all quote Cheribert, ruler of the little town
of Lutetia, near Issay — Lutetia Parisiorum — who
repudiated his wife. The Abbe Velly, in his "His-
tory of France," says that this Cheribert, or Cari-
bert, divorced his wife Ingoberg to espouse J\Iire-
fieur, the daughter of an artisan ; and afterwards
Theudegild, the daughter of a shepherd, who was
raised to the first throne of the French Empire.

There was at that time neither first nor second
throne among these barbarians whom the Roman
Empire never recognized as kings. There was no
French Empire. The empire of the French only
commenced with Charlemagne. It is very doubtful
whether the word "miref^eur" was in use either in
the Welsh or Gallic languages, which were a patois
of the Celtic jargon. This patois had no expres-
sions so soft.

It is also said that the ruler or governor Chil-
peric, lord of the province of Soissonnais, whom
they call king of France, divorced his queen Ando-
vere, or Andove; and here follows the reason of
this divorce.

This Andovere, after having given three male
children to the lord of Soissons, brought forth a
daughter. The Franks having been in some man-
ner Christians since the time of Clovis, Andovere,

Dictionary. 147

after her recovery, presented her daughter to be
baptized. Chilperic of Soissons, who was apparently
very tired of her, declared that it was an unpardon-
able crime in her to be the godmother of her infant,
and that she could no longer be his wife by the laws
of the Church. He therefore married Fredegond,
whom he subsequently put away also, and espoused
a Visigoth. To conclude, this scrupulous husband
ended by taking Fredegond back again.

There was nothing legal in all this, and it ought
no more to be quoted than anything which passed
in Ireland or the Orcades. The Justinian code,
which we have adopted in several points, authorizes
divorce ; but the canonical law, which the Catholics
have placed before it, does not permit it.

The author of the article says that divorce is
practised in the states of Germany, of the confes-
sion of Augsburg. He might have added that this
custom is established in all the countries of the
North, among the reformed of all professions, and
among all the followers of the Greek Church.

Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as
marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some
weeks more ancient ; that is to say, men quarrelled
with their wives at the end of five days, beat them
at the end of a month, and separated from them
after six weeks' cohabitation.

Justinian, who collected all the laws made before
him, to which he added his own, not only confirms
that of divorce, but he extends it still further; so

148 Philosophical

that every woman, whose husband is not a slave,
but simply a prisoner of war during five years, may,
after the five years have expired, contract another
marriage.

Justinian was a Christian, and even a theologian ;
how is it, then, that the Church derogates from his
laws ? It was when the Church became the sovereign
and the legislator. The popes had not much trouble
to substitute their decretals instead of the civil code
in the West, which was plunged in ignorance and
barbarism. They took, indeed, so much advantage
of the prevailing ignorance, that Honorius III.,
Gregory IX., and Innocent III., by their bulls, for-
bade the civil law to be taught. It may be said of
this audacity, that it is not creditable, but true.

As the Church alone took cognizance of mar-
riages, so it alone judged of divorce. No prince
effected a divorce and married a second wife with-
out previously obtaining the consent of the pope.
Henry VIII. , king of England, did not marry with-
out his consent, until after having a long time solic
ited his divorce in the court of Rome in vain.

This custom, established in ignorant times, i*
perpetuated in enlightened ones only because it
exists. All abuse eternizes itself; it is an Augean
stable, and requires a Hercules to cleanse it.

Henry IV. could not be the father of a king of
France without the permission of the pope; which
must have been given, as has already been remarked,
not by pronouncing a divorce, but a lie; that is to

Dictionary. 149

say, by pretending that there had not been previous
marriage with Margaret de Valois.

DOG.

It seems as if nature had given the dog to man
for his defence and pleasure ; it is of all animals the
most faithful ; it is the best possible friend of man.

It appears that there are several species absolutely
different. How can we believe that a greyhound
comes originally from a spaniel? It has neither its
hair, legs, shape, ears, voice, scent, nor instinct. A
man who has never seen any dogs but barbets or
spaniels, and who saw a greyhound for the first
time, would take it rather for a dwarf horse than
for an animal of the spaniel race. It is very likely
that each race was always what it now is, with the
exception of the mixture of a small number of them.

It is astonishing that, in the Jewish law, the dog
was considered unclean, as well as the griffin, the
hare, the pig, and the eel ; there must have been
some moral or physical reason for it, which we have
not yet discovered.

That which is related of the sagacity, obedience,
friendship, and courage of dogs, is as extraordinary
as true. The military philosopher, Ulloa, assures
us that in Peru the Spanish dogs recognize the men
of the Indian race, pursue them, and tear them to
pieces ; and that the Peruvian dogs do the same
with the Spaniards. This would seem to prove that
each species of dogs still retained the hatred which

150 Philosophical

was inspired in it at the time of the discovery, and
that each race always fought for its master with the
same valor and attachment.

Why, then, has the word "dog" become an in-
jurious term ? We say, for tenderness, my sparrow,
my dove, my chicken ; we even say my kitten,
though this animal is famed for treachery; and,
when we are angry, we call people dogs ! The
Turks, when not even angry, speak with horror and
contempt of the Christian dogs. The English pop-
ulace, when they see a man who, by his manner or
dress, has the appearance of having been born on
the banks of the Seine or of the Loire, commonly
call him a French dog — a figure of rhetoric which
is neither just to the dog nor poHte to the man.

The delicate Homer introduces the divine
Achilles telling the divine Agamemnon that he is as
impudent as a dog — a classical justification of the
English populace.

The most zealous friends of the dog must, how-
ever, confess that this animal carries audacity in its
eyes ; that some are morose ; that they often bite
strangers whom they take for their master's ene-
mies, as sentinels assail passengers who approach
too near the counterscarp. These are probably the
reasons which have rendered the epithet "dog" in-
sulting ; but we dare not decide.

Why was the dog adored and revered — as has
been seen — by the Egyptians? Because the dog

Dictionary. 151

protects man. Plutarch tells us that after Cambyses
had killed their bull Apis, and had had it roasted,
no animal except the dog dared to eat the remains
of the feast, so profound was the respect for Apis ;
the dog, not so scrupulous, swallowed the god with-
out hesitation. The Egyptians, as may be imagined,
were exceedingly scandalized at this want of rever-
ence, and Anubis lost much of his credit.

The dog, however, still bears the honor of being
always in the heavens, under the names of the great
and little dog. We regularly record the dog-days.

But of all dogs, Cerberus has had the greatest
reputation ; he had three heads. We have remarked
that, anciently, all went by threes — Isis, Osiris, and
Orus, the three first Egyptian divinities ; the three
brother gods of the Greek world — Jupiter, Nep-
tune, and Pluto ; the three Fates, the three Furies,
the three Graces, the three judges of hell, and the
three heads of this infernal dog.

We perceive here with grief that we have
omitted the article on ''Cats" ; but we console our-
selves by referring to their history. We will only
remark that there are no cats in the heavens, as there
are goats, crabs, bulls, rams, eagles, lions, fishes,
hares, and dogs ; but, in recompense, the cat has
been consecrated, or revered, or adored, as partak-
ing of divinity or saintship in several towns, and as
altogether divine by no small number of women.

tj^l Philosophical

DOGMAS.

We know that all belief taught by the Church is
a dogma which we must embrace. It is a pity that
there are dogmas received by the Latin Church, and
rejected by the Greek. But if unanimity is wanting,
charity replaces it. It is, above all, between hearts
that union is required. I think that we can relate a
dream to the purpose, which has already found favor
in the estimation of many peaceably disposed per-
sons.

"On Feb. i8, 1763, of the vulgar era, the sun
entering the sign of the fishes, I was transported to
heaven, as all my friends can bear witness. The
mare Borac, of Mahomet, was not my steed, neither
was the fiery chariot of Elijah my carriage. I was
not carried on the elephant of Somonocodom, the
Siamese ; on the horse of St. George, the patron of
England ; nor on St. Anthony's pig. I avow with
frankness that my journey was made I know not
how.

"It will be easily believed that I was dazzled ;
but it will not so easily be credited that I witnessed
the judgment of the dead. And who were the
judges? They were — do not be displeased at it — all
those who have done good to man. Confucius,
Solon, Socrates, Titus, Antoninus, Epictetus, Char-
ron, de Thou, Chancellor de L' Hopital, and all the
great men who, having taught and practised the vir-
tues that God requires, seemed to be the only per-

Dictionary. 1 53

sons possessing the right of pronouncing his de-
crees.

"I shall not describe on what thrones they were
seated, nor how many celestial beings were pros-
trated before the eternal architect of all worlds, nor
what a crowd of the inhabitants of these innumer-
able worlds appeared before the judges. I shall not
even give an account of several little interesting
peculiarities which were exceedingly striking.

"I remarked that every spirit who pleaded his
cause and displayed his specious pretensions had
beside him all the witnesses of his actions. For ex-
ample, when Cardinal Lorraine boasted of having
caused some of his opinions to be adopted by the
Council of Trent, and demanded eternal life as the
price of his orthodoxy, there immediately appeared
around him twenty ladies of the court, all bearing
on their foreheads the number of their interviews
with the cardinal. I also saw those who had con-
certed with him the foundations of the infamous
league. All the accomplices of his wicked designs
surrounded him.

"Over against Cardinal Lorraine was John Calvin,
who boasted, in his gross patois, of having trampled
upon the papal idol, after others had overthrown it.
'I have written against painting and sculpture,' said
he ; 'I have made it apparent that good works are of
no avail, and I have proved that it is diabolical to
dance a minuet. Send away Cardinal Lorraine
quickly, and place me by the side of St. Paul.'

154 Philosophical

"As he spoke there appeared by his side a lighted
pile ; a dreadful spectre, wearing round his neck
a Spanish frill, arose half burned from the midst of
the flames, with dreadful shrieks. 'Monster,' cried
he ; 'execrable monster, tremble ! recognize that
Servetus, whom you caused to perish by the most
cruel torments, because he had disputed with you
on the manner in which three persons can form one
substance.' Then all the judges commanded that
Cardinal Lorraine should be thrown into the abyss,
but that Calvin should be punished still more rig-
orously.

"I saw a prodigious crowd of spirits, each of
which said, T have believed, I have believed!'
but on their forehead it was written, 'I have acted,'
and they were condemned.

"The Jesuit Letellier appeared boldly with the
bull Unigenitus in his hand. But there suddenly
arose at his side a heap, consisting of two thousand
lettres-de-cachet. A Jansenist set fire to them, and
Letellier was burned to a cinder ; while the Jan-
senist, who had no less caballed than the Jesuit, had
his share of the flames.

'T saw approach, from right and left, troops of
fakirs, talapoins, bonzes, and black, white, and gray
monks, who all imagined that, to make their court
to the Supreme Being, they must either sing,
scourge themselves, or walk quite naked. 'What
good have you done to men?' was the query. A
dead silence succeeded to this question. No onr.

Dictionary. 155

dared to answer ; and they were all conducted to
the mad-houses of the universe, the largest buildings
imaginable.

"One cried out that he believed in the meta-
morphoses of Xaca, another in those of Somonoco-
dom. 'Bacchus stopped the sun and moon !' said
this one. 'The gods resuscitated Pelops !' said the
other. 'Here is the bull in ccena Domini!' said a
newcomer — and the officer of the court exclaimed.
'To Bedlam, to Bedlam !'

"When all these causes were gone through, I
heard this proclamation: 'By the Eternal Creator,
Preserver, Revvarder, Revenger, Forgiver, etc., be
it known to all the inhabitants of the hundred thou-
sand millions of millions of worlds that it hath
pleased us to form, that we never judge any sinners
in reference to their own shallow ideas, but only
as to their actions. Such is our Justice.'

"I own that this was the first time I ever heard
such an edict ; all those which I had read, on the
little grain of dust on which I was born, ended with
these words : 'Such is our pleasure.' "

DONATIONS.

The Roman Republic, which seized so many
states, also gave some away. Scipio made Mas-
sinissa king of Numidia.

Lucullus, Sulla, and Pompey, each gave away
half a dozen kingdoms. Cleopatra received Egypt

156 Philosophical

from Csesar. Antony, and afterwards Octavius,
gave the little kingdom of Judaea to Herod.

Under Trajan, the famous medal of regna as^
signata was struck and kingdoms bestowed.

Cities and provinces given in sovereignty to
priests and to colleges, for the greater glory of God,
or of the gods, are seen in every country. Mahomet,
and the caliphs, his vicars, took possession of many
states in the propagation of their faith, but they did
not make donations of them. They held by nothing
but their Koran and their sabre.

The Christian religion, which was at first a
society of poor people, existed for a long time on
alms alone. The first donation was that of Ananias
and Sapphira his wife. It was in ready money and
was not prosperous to the donors.

The Donation of Constantine.

The celebrated donation of Rome and all Italy to
Pope Sylvester by the emperor Constantine, was
maintained as a part of the creed of Rome until the
sixteenth century. It was believed that Constantine,
being at Nicomedia, was cured of leprosy at Rome
by the baptism which he received from Bishop Syl-
vester, though he was not baptized at all ; and that
by way of recompense he gave forthwith the city
of Rome and all its western provinces to this Syl-
vester. If the deed of this donation had been drawn
up by the doctor of the Italian comedy, it could not
have been more pleasantly conceived. It is added

Dictionary. 157

that Constantine declared all the canons of Rome
consuls and patricians — "patricios et consules efUci"
— that he himself held the bridle of the mare on
which the new bishop was mounted — "tenentes fre-
niim equi illhis."

It is astonishing to reflect that this fine story was
held an article of faith and respected by the rest of
Europe for eight centuries, and that the Church per-
secuted as heretics all those who doubted it.

Donation of Pepin.

At present people are no longer persecuted for
doubting that Pepin the usurper gave, or was able
to give, the exarchate of Ravenna to the pope. It
is at most an evil thought, a venial sin, which does
not endanger the loss of body or of soul.

The reasoning of the German lawyers, who have
scruples in regard to this donation, is as follows :

1. The librarian Anastatius, whose evidence is
always cited, Avrote one hundred and forty years
after the event.

2. It is not likely that Pepin, who was not firmly
established in France, and against whom Aquitaine
made war, could give away, in Italy, states which
already belonged to the emperor, resident at Con-
stantinople.

3. Pope Zacharias recognized the Roman-Greek
emperor as the sovereign of those lands, disputed
by the Lombards, and had administered the oath to
him; as may be seen by the letters of this bishop.

158 Philosophical

Zacharias of Rome to Bishop Boniface of Mentz.
Pepin could not give to the pope the imperial ter-
ritories.

4. When Pope Stephen II. produced a letter
from heaven, written in the hand of St. Peter, to
Pepin, to complain of the grievances of the king of
the Lombards, Astolphus, St. Peter does not men-
tion in his letter that Pepin had made a present of the
exarchate of Ravenna to the pope ; and certainly St.
Peter would not have failed to do so, even if the
thing had been only equivocal ; he understands his
interest too well.

Finally, the deed of this donation has never
been produced ; and what is still stronger, the fab-
rication of a false one cannot be ventured. The only
proofs are vague recitals, mixed up with fables.
Instead of certainty, there are only the absurd writ-
ings of monks, copied from age to age, from one
another.

The Italian advocate who wrote in 1722 to prove
that Parma and Placentia had been ceded to the
holy see as a dependency of the exarchate, asserts
that the Greek emperors were justly despoiled of
their rights because they had excited the people
against God. Can lawyers write thus in our days?
Yes, it appears, but only at Rome. Cardinal Bellar-
mine goes still farther. "The first Christians," says
he, "supported the emperors only because they were
not the strongest." The avowal is frank, and I am
persuaded that Bellarmine is right.

Dictionary. 159

The Donation of Charlemagne.

At a time when the court of Rome beheved itself
deficient in titles, it pretended that Charlemagne had
confirmed the donation of the exarchate, and that he
added to it Sicily, Venice, Benevento, Corsica, and
Sardinia. But as Charlemagne did not possess any
of these states, he could not give them away ; and as
to the town of Ravenna, it is very clear that he kept
it, since in his will he made a legacy to his city of
Ravenna as well as to his city of Rome. It is sur-
prising enough that the popes have obtained Ra-
venna and Rome ; but as to Venice, it is not likely
that the diploma which granted them the sover-
eignty will be found in the palace of St. Mark.

All these acts, instruments, and diplomas have
been subjects of dispute for ages. But it is a con-
firmed opinion, says Giannone, that martyr to truth,
that all these pieces were forged in the time of
Gregory VII. "E costanfe opinione presso i pin
gravi scrittori che tutti qtiesti istromenti e diplomi
furono supposfi ne tempi d'lldehrando."

Donation of Benevento by the Emperor Henry III.

The first well attested donation which was made
to the see of Rome was that of Benevento, and that
was an exchange of the Emperor Henry III. witli
the pope. It wanted only one formality, which was
that the emperor who gave away Benevento was not
the owner of it. It belonged to the dukes of Bene-
vento, and the Roman-Greek emperors reclaimed

i6o Philosophical

their rights on this duchy. But history supplies
little beyond a list of those who have accommodated
themselves with the property of others.

Donation of the Countess Mathilda.

The most authentic and considerable of these
donations was that of all the possessions of the
famous Countess Mathilda to Gregory VII. She was
a young widow, who gave all to her spiritual
director. It is supposed that the deed was twice
executed and afterwards confirmed by her will.

However, there still remains some difificulty. It
was always believed at Rome that Mathilda had given
all her states, all her possessions, present and to
come, to her friend Gregory VII. by a solemn deed,
in her castle of Canossa, in 1077, for the relief of her
own soul and that of her parents. And to cor-
roborate this precious instrument a second is shown
to us, dated in the year 1102, in which it is said that
it is to Rome that she made this donation ; that she
recalled it, and that she afterwards renewed it ; and
always for the good of her soul.

How could so important a deed be recalled ? Was
the court of Rome so negligent? How could an in-
strument written at Canossa have been written at
Rome? What do these contradictions mean? All
that is clear is that the souls of the receivers fared
better than the soul of the giver, who to save it was
obliged to deprive herself of all she possessed in
favor of her physicians.

Dictionary. i6t

In short, in 1 102, a sovereign was deprived of the
power of disposing of an acre of land ; yet after this
deed, and to the time of her death, in 11 15, there
are still found considerable donations of lands made
by this same Mathilda to canons and monks. She
had not, therefore, given all. Finally, this deed was
very likely made by some ingenious person after her
death.

The court of Rome still includes among its titles
the testament of Mathilda, which confirmed her dona-
tions. The popes, however, never produce this tes-
tament. It should also be known whether this rich
countess had the power to dispose of her posses-
sions, which were most of them fiefs of the empire.

The Emperor Henry V., her heir, possessed him-
self of all, and recognized neither testament, dona-
tion, deed, nor right. The popes, in temporizing,
gained more than the emperors in exerting their
authority ; and in time these Caesars became so weak
that the popes finally obtained the succession of
Mathilda, which is now called the patrimony of St.
Peter.

Donation of the Sovereignty of Naples to the Popes.

The Norman gentlemen who were the first in-
struments of the conquests of Naples and Sicily
achieved the finest exploit of chivalry that was ever
heard of. From forty to fifty men only delivered
Salerno at the moment it was taken by an army of

Saracens. Seven other Norman gentlemen, all
Vol. 8— II

J 62 Philosophical

brothers, sufficed to chase these same Saracens from
all the country, and to take prisoner the Greek em-
peror, who had treated them ungratefully. It was
quite natural that the people, whom these heroes
had inspired with valor, should be led to obey them
through admiration and gratitude.

Such were the first rights to the crown of the two
Sicilies. The bishops of Rome could no more give
those states in fief than the kingdoms of Boutan or
Cachemire. They could not even grant the investi-
ture which would have been demanded of them ;
for, in the time of the anarchy of the fiefs, when a
lord would hold his free land as a fief for his pro-
tection, he could only address himself to the sov-
ereign or the chief of the country in which it was
situated. And certainly the pope was neither the
sovereign of Naples, Apulia, nor Calabria.

Much has been written about this pretended vas-
salage, but the source has never been discovered.
I dare say that it is as much the fault of the lawyers
as of the theologians. Every one deduces from a re-
ceived principle consequences the most favorable to
himself or his party. But is the principle true?
Is the first fact by which it is supported incontest-
able? It is this which should be examined. It re-
sembles our ancient romance writers, who all take
it for granted that Francus brought the helmet of
Hector to France. This casque was impenetrable,
no doubt ; but had Hector really worn it ? The
holy Virgin's milk is also very respectable; but do

Dictionary. 1^3

the twenty sacristies, who boast of having a gill of
it, really possess it ?

Men of the present time, as wicked as foolish, do
not shrink from the greatest crimes, and yet fear an
excommunication, which would render them ex-
ecrable to people still more wicked and foolish than
themselves.

Robert and Richard Guiscard, the conquerors of
Apulia and Calabria, were excommunicated by Pope
Leo IX. They were declared vassals of the empire ;
but the emperor, Henry III., discontented with these
feudatory conquerors, engaged Leo IX. to launch
the excommunication at the head of an army of
Germans. The Normans, who did not fear these
thunderbolts like the princes of Italy, beat the Ger-
mans and took the pope prisoner. But to prevent
the popes and emperors hereafter from coming to
trouble them in their possessions, they ofifered their
conquests to the Church under the name of ohlata.
It was thus that England paid the Peter's pence ;
that the first kings of Spain and Portugal, on recov-
ering their states from the Saracens, promised two
pounds of gold a year to the Church of Rome. But
England, Spain, nor Portugal never regarded the
pope as their sovereign master.

Duke Robert, ohlat of the Church, was therefore
no feudatory of the pope ; he could not be so, since
the popes were not the sovereigns of Rome. This
city was then governed by its senate, and the bishop
possessed only influence. The pope was at Rome

164 Philosophical

precisely what the elector is at Cologne. There is
a prodigious difference between the oblat of a saint
and the feudatory of a bishop.

Baronius, in his "Acts," relates the pretended
homage done by Robert, duke of Apulia and Cala-
bria, to Nicholas II. ; but this deed is suspected, like
many others ; it has never been seen, it has never
been found in any archives. Robert entitled himself
"duke by the grace of God and St. Peter" ; but cer-
tainly St. Peter had given him nothing, nor was that
saint king of Rome.

The other popes, who were kings no more than
St. Peter, received without difficulty the homage of
all the princes who presented themselves to reign
over Naples, particularly when these princes were
the most powerful.

Donation of England and Ireland to the Popes by
King John.

In 1213, King John, vulgarly called Lackland, or
more properly Lackvirtue, being excommunicated
and seeing his kingdom laid under an interdict,
gave it away to Pope Innocent III. and his succes-
sors. "Not constrained with fear, but with my full
consent and the advice of my barons, for the remis-
sion of my sins against God and the Church, I resign
England and Ireland to God, St. Peter, St. Paul,
and our lord the Pope Innocent, and to his succes-
sors in the apostolic chair."

He declared himself feudatory lieutenant of the

Dictionary. 165

pope, paid about eight thousand pounds sterling in
ready money to the legate Pandulph, promised to
pay a thousand more every year, gave the first year
in advance to the legate who trampled upon him,
and swore on his knees that he submitted to lose
all in the event of not paying at the time appointed.
The jest of this ceremony was that the legate de-
parted with the money and forgot to remove the ex-
communication.

Examination of the Vassalage of Naples and
England.

It may be asked which was the more valuable, the
donation of Robert Guiscard or that of John Lack-
land ; both had been excommunicated, both had
given their states to St. Peter and became only the
farmers of them. If the English barons were in-
dignant at the infamous bargain of their king with
the pope, and cancelled it, the Neapolitan barons
could have equally cancelled that of Baron Robert;
and that which they could have done formerly they
certainly can do at present.

Were England and Apulia given to the pope, ac-
cording to the law of the Church or of the fiefs, as
to a bishop or a sovereign ? If to a bishop, it is pre-
cisely contrary to the law of Jesus, w4io so often for-
bids his disciples to take anything, and who declares
to them that His kingdom is not of this world.

If as to a sovereign, it was high treason to his
imperial majesty; the Normans had already done

1 66 Philosophical

homage to the emperor. Thus no right, spiritual or
temporal, belonged to the popes in this affair. When
the principle is erroneous, all the deductions are so
of course. Naples no more belonged to the pope
than England.

There is still another method of providing against
this ancient bargain; it is the right of the people,
which is stronger than the right of the fiefs. The
people's right will not suffer one sovereign to be-
long to another, and the most ancient law is to be
master of our own, at least when we are not the
weakest.

Of Donations Made by the Popes.

If principalities have been given to the bishops of
Rome, they have given away many more. There is
not a single throne in Europe to which they have not
made a present. As soon as a prince had conquered
a country, or even wished to do it, the popes granted
it in the name of St. Peter. Sometimes they even
made the first advances, and it may be said that
they have given away every kingdom but that of
heaven.

Few people in France know that Julius II. gave
the states of King Louis XII. to the Emperor Max-
imilian, who could not put himself in possession of
them. They do not sufficiently remember that Six-
tus v., Gregory XIV., and Clement VIII., were
ready to make a present of France to whomsoever
Philip II. would have chosen for the husband of his
daughter Clara Eugenia.

Dictionary. 167

As to the emperors, there is not one since Charle-
magne that the court of Rome has not pretended to
nominate. This is the reason why Swift, in his
"Tale of a Tub," says "that Lord Peter became
suddenly mad, and that Martin and Jack, his
brothers, confined him by the advice of their rela-
tions." We simply relate this drollery as a pleasant
blasphemy of an English priest against the bishop
of Rome.

All these donations disappear before that of the
East and West Indies, with which Alexander VI. of
his divine power and authority invested Spain and
Portugal. It was giving almost all the earth. He
could in the same manner have given away the
globes of Jupiter and Saturn with their satellites.

Particular Donations.

The donations of citizens are treated quite dif-
ferently. The codes are unanimously agreed that
no one can give away the property of another as well
as that no person can take it. It is a universal law.

In France, jurisprudence was uncertain on this
object, as on almost all others, until the year 1731,
when the equitable Chancellor d'Aguesseau, having
conceived the design of making the law uniform,
very weakly began the great work by the edict on
donations. It is digested in forty-seven articles, but,
in wishing to render all the formalities concerning
donations uniform, Flanders was excepted from the
general law, and in excepting Flanders, Artois was

1 68 Philosophical

forgotten, which should have enjoyed the same ex-
ception ; so that in six years after the general law,
a particular one was obliged to be made for Artois.

These new edicts concerning donations and tes-
taments were principally made to do away with all
the commentators who had considerably embroiled
the laws, having already compiled six commentaries
upon them.

It may be remarked that donations, or deeds of
gift, extend much farther than to the particular per-
son to whom a present is made. For every present
there must be paid to the farmers of the royal do-
main— the duty of control, the duty of "insinuation,"
the duty of the hundredth penny, the tax of two sous
in the livre, the tax of eight sous in the livre, etc.

So that every time you make a present to a citi-
zen you are much more Hberal than you imagine.
You have also the pleasure of contributing to the en-
riching of the farmers-general, but, after all, this
money does not go out of the kingdom like that
which is paid to the court of Rome.

DRINKING HEALTHS.

What was the origin of this custom? Has it
existed since drinking commenced? It appears nat-
ural to drink wine for our own health, but not for
the health of others.

The "propino" of the Greeks, adopted by the Ro-
mans, does not signify "I drink to your good

Dictionary. 169

hea\h," but "I drink first that you may drink after-
wards"— I invite you to drink.

In their festivals they drink to celebrate a mis-
tress, not that she might have good health. See in
Martial: "Naevia sex cyathis, septan Jiistina biba-
iir." — "Six cups for Xaevia, for Justina seven."

The English, who pique themselves upon renew-
ing several ancient customs, drink to the honor of
the ladies, which they call toasting, and it is a great
subject of dispute among them whether a lady is
toastworthy or not — whether she is worthy to be
toasted.

They drank at Rome for the victories of Augus-
tus, and for the return of his health. Dion Cassius
relates that after the battle of Actium the senate
decreed that, in their repasts, libations should be
made to him in the second service. It was a strange
decree. It is more probable that flattery had vol-
untarily introduced this meanness. Be it as it may,
we read in Horace :

//ific ad vina redit latus, et alteris
Te vieiisis adhibet Detwi,
Te ymdta prece; te prosequitur nero
Defuso pateris; et labiis tuunt
Miscet 7iu}nen; uti Graecia Castoris

Et ma^ni nef/iore HercuHs.
Longas o titinavi, dux bone ferias
Praestes Hesperiae; dichnus ititegro
Sicci matte die, dicivius uvidi,

Quiitn sol oceano subest.

To thee he chants the sacred song,

To thee the rich libation pours;
Thee placed his household gods among,

With solemn daily prayer adores;
So Castor and great Hercules of old
Were with her gods by graceful Greece enrolled,

170 Philosophical

Gracious and good, beneath thy reign
May Rome her happy hours employ,

And grateful hail thy just domain
With pious hymn and festal joy.

Thus, with the rising sun we sober pray,

Thus, in our wine beneath his setting ray.

It is very likely that hence the custom arose
among barbarous nations of drinking to the health
of their guests, an absurd custom, since we may
drink four bottles without doing them the least good.

The dictionary of Trevoux tells us that we should
not drink to the health of our superiors in their pres-
ence. This may be the case in France or Germany,
but in England it is a received custom. The dis-
tance is not so great from one man to another at
London as at Vienna.

It is of importance in England to drink to the
health of a prince who pretends to the throne ; it is
to declare yourself his partisan. It has cost more
than one Scotchman and Hibernian dear for having
drank to the health of the Stuarts.

All the Whigs, after the death of King William,
drank not to his health, but to his memory. A Tory
named Brown, bishop of Cork in Ireland, a great en-
emy to William in Ireland, said, "that he would put
a cork in all those bottles which were drunk to the
glory of this monarch." He did not stop at this silly
pun ; he wrote, in 1702, an episcopal address to show
the Irish that it was an atrocious impiety to drink to
the health of kings, and, above all, to their memory ;
that the latter, in particular, is a profanation of thp.%t

Dictionary. 171

words of Jesus Christ: "Drink this in remembrance
of me."

It is astonishing that this bishop was not the first
who conceived such a folly. Before him, the Pres-
byterian Prynne had written a great book against the
impious custom of drinking to the health of Chris-
tians.

Finally, there was one John Geza, vicar of the
parish of St. Faith, who published "The Divine Po-
tion to Preserve Spiritual Health, by the Cure of the
Inveterate Malady of Drinking Healths ; with Clear
and Solid Arguments against this Criminal Custom,
all for the Satisfaction of the Public, at the Request
of a \\'orthy Member of Parliament, in the Year of
Our Salvation 1648."

Our reverend Father Garasse, our reverend
Father Patouillet, and our reverend Father Nonnotte
are nothing superior to these profound Englishmen.
We have a long time wrestled with our neighbors
for the superiority — To which is it due?

THE DRUIDS.

The Scene is in Tartarus. The Furies Entwined
zi'ith Serpents, and Whips in Their Hands.

Come along, Barbaquincorix, Celtic druid, and
thou, detestable Grecian hierophant, Calchas, the
moment of your just punishment has returned
again ; the hour of vengeance has arrived — the bell
has sounded!

172 Philosophical

THE DRUID AND CALCHAS.

Oh, heavens ! my head, my sides, my eyes, my
ears ! pardon, ladies, pardon !

CALCHAS.

Mercy ! two vipers are penetrating my eye-balls !

DRUID.

A serpent is devouring my entrails !

CALCHAS.

Alas, how am I mangled ! And must my eyes
be every day restored, to be torn again from my
head ?

DRUID.

Must my skin be renewed only to dangle in rib-
bons from my lacerated body?

TISIPHONE,

It will teach you how to palm off a miserable par-
asitical plant for a universal remedy another time.
Will you still sacrifice boys and girls to your god
Theutates, priest? still burn them in osier baskets
to the sound of a drum ?

DRUID.

Never, never ; dear lady, a little mercy, I beseech
you.

TISIPHONE.

You never had any yourself. Seize him, ser-
pents, and now another lash !

ALECTO.

Let them curry well this Calchas, who advances

Dictionary. 173

towards us, "With cruel eye, dark mien, and bristled
hair."

CALCHAS.

My hair is torn away ; I am scorched, flayed, im-
paled !

ALECTO.

Wretch ! Will you again cut the throat of a beau-
tiful girl, in order to obtain a favorable gale, in-
stead of uniting her to a good husband?

CALCHAS AND THE DRUID,

Oh, what torments ! and yet we die not.

TISIPHONE.

Hey-dey ! God forgive me, but I hear music !
It is Orpheus: why our serpents, sister, have be-
come as gentle as lambs !

CALCHAS.

My sufferings cease; how very strange!

THE DRUID.

I am altogether recovered. Oh, the power of
good music! And who are you, divine man, who
thus cures wounds, and rejoices hell itself?

ORPHEUS.

My friends, I am a priest like yourselves, but I
never deceived anyone, nor cut the throat of either
boy or girl in my life. When on earth, instead of
making the gods hated, I rendered them beloved,
and softened the manners of the men whom you
made ferocious. I shall exert myself in the like

174 Philosophical

manner in hell. I met, just now, two barbarous
priests whom they were scourging beyond measure ;
one of them formerly hewed a king in pieces before
the Lord, and the other cut the throat of his queen
and sovereign at the horse gate. I have terminated
their punishment, and, having played to them a tune
on the violin, they have promised me that when they
return into the world they will live like honest men.

DRUID AND CALCHAS.

We promise the same thing, on the word of a
priest.

ORPHEUS.

Yes, but "Passato il pericolo, gabbato il santo."
[TJie scene closes ivith a figure Dance, performed
by Orpheus, the Condemned, and the Furies, to
light and agreeable music]

EASE.

Easy applies not only to a thing easily done, but
also to a thing which appears to be so. The pencil
of Correggio is easy, the style of Quinault is much
more easy than that of Despreaux, and the style of
Ovid surpasses in facility that of Persius.

This facility in painting, music, eloquence, and
poetry, consists in a natural and spontaneous felic-
ity, which admits of nothing that implies research,
strength, or profundity. Thus the pictures of Paul
Veronese have a much more easy and less finished
air than those of Michel Angelo. The symphonies

Dictionary, 175

of Rameau are superior to those of Lulli, but ap-
pear less easy. Bossuet is more truly eloquent and
more easy than Flechier. Rousseau, in his epistles,
has not near the facility and truth of Despreaux.

The commentator of Despreaux says that "this
exact and laborious poet taught the illustrious Ra-
cine to make verses with difficulty, and that those
which appear easy are those which have been made
with the most difficulty."

It is true that it often costs much pains to ex-
press ourselves with clearness, as also that the nat-
ural may be arrived at by effort ; but it is also true
that a happy genius often produces easy beauties
without any labor, and that enthusiasm goes much
farther than art.

Most of the impassioned expressions of our good
poets have come finished from their pen, and appear
easy, as if they had in reality been composed with-
out labor; the imagination, therefore, often con-
ceives and brings forth easily. It is not thus with
didactic works, which require art to make them ap-
pear easy. For example, there is much less ease
than profundity in Pope's "Essay on Man."

Bad works may be rapidly constructed, which,
having no genius, will appear easy, and it is often
the lot of those who, without genius, have the un-
fortunate habit of composing. It is in this sense
that a personage of the old comedy, called the "Ital-
ian," says to another: "Thou makest bad verses
admirably well."

176 Philosophical

The term "easy" is an insult to a woman, but is
sometimes in society praise for a man; it is, how-
ever, a fault in a statesman. The manners of Atti-
cus were easy ; he was the most amiable of the Ro-
mans ; the easy Cleopatra gave herself as easily to
Antony as to Csesar; the easy Claudius allowed
himself to be governed by Agrippina; easy applied
to Claudius is only a lenitive, the proper expression
is weak.

An easy man is in general one possessed of a
mind which easily gives itself up to reason and re-
monstrance— a heart which melts at the prayers
which are made to it ; while a weak man is one who
allows too much authority over him.

ECLIPSE.

In the greatest part of the known world every
extraordinary phenomenon was for a long time be-
lieved to be the presage of some happy or miserable
event. Thus the Roman historians have not failed
to observe that an eclipse of the sun accompanied
the birth of Romulus, that another announced his
death, and that a third attended the foundation of
the city of Rome.

We have already spoken of the article entitled
''The Vision of Constantine," of the apparition of
the cross which preceded the triumph of Christian-
ity, and under the article on "Prophecy," we shall
treat of the new star which enlightened the birth of
Jesus. We will, therefore, here confine ourselves to

Dictionary. 177

what has been said of the darkness with which all
the earth was covered when He gave up the ghost.

The writers of the Greek and Romish Churches
have quoted as authentic two letters attributed to
Dionysius the Areopagite, in which he relates that
being at Heliopolis in Egypt, with his friend Apol-
lophanes, he suddenly saw, about the sixth hour, the
moon pass underneath the sun, which caused a great
eclipse. Afterwards, in the ninth hour, they per-
ceived the moon quitting the place which she occu-
pied and return to the opposite side of the diameter.
They then took the rules of Philip Aridseus, and,
having examined the course of the stars, they found
that the sun could not have been naturally eclipsed
at that time. Further, they observed that the moon,
contrary to her natural motion, instead of going to
the west to range herself under the sun, approached
on the eastern side and that she returned behind on
the same side, which caused ApoUophanes to say,
"These, my dear Dionysius, are changes of Divine
things," to which Dionysius replied, "Either the au-
thor of nature suffers, or the machine of the universe
will be soon destroyed."

Dionysius adds that having remarked the exact

time and year of this prodigy, and compared them

with what Paul afterwards told him, he yielded up

to the truth as well as his friend. This is what led

to the belief that the darkness happening at the death

of Jesus Christ was caused by a supernatural eclipse ;

and what has extended this opinion is that Maldonat
Vol. 8—12

178 Philosophical

says it is that of almost all the Catholics. How is it
possible to resist the authority of an ocular, enlight-
ened, and disinterested witness, since it was sup-
posed that when he saw this eclipse Dionysius was a
pagan ?

As these pretended letters of Dionysius were not
forged until towards the fifteenth or sixteenth cen-
tury, Eusebius of Caesarea was contented with
quoting the evidence of Phlegon, a freed man of the
emperor Adrian, This author was also a pagan,
and had written "The History of the Olympiads,"
in sixteen books, from their origin to the year 140 of
the vulgar era. He is made to say that in the fourth
year of the two hundred and second Olympiad there
was the greatest eclipse of the sun that had ever been
seen ; the day was changed to night at the sixth
hour, the stars were seen, and an earthquake over-
threw several edifices in the city of Nicsea in Bi-
thynia. Eusebius adds that the same events are re-
lated in the ancient monuments of the Greeks, as
having happened in the eighteenth year of Tiberius.
It is thought that Eusebius alluded to Thallus, a
Greek historian already cited by Justin, Tertullian,
and Julius Africanus, but neither the work of Thal-
lus, nor that of Phlegon having reached us, we can
only judge of the accuracy of these two quotations
of reasoning.

It is true that the Paschal "Chronicle of the
Greeks," as well as St. Jerome Anastatius, the au-
thor of the "Historia Miscclla," and Freculphus of

Dictionary. 179

Luxem, among the Latins, all unite in representing
the fragment of Phlegon in the same manner. But
it is known that these five witnesses, so uniform in
their dispositions, translated or copied the passage,
not from Phlegon himself, but from Eusebius ; while
John Philoponus, who had read Phlegon, far from
agreeing with Eusebius, diflfers from him by two
years. We could also name Maximus and Maleba,
who lived when the w^ork of Phlegon still existed,
and the result of an examination of the whole is that
five of the quoted authors copy Eusebius. Philo-
ponus, who really saw the work of Phlegon, gives a
second reading, Maximus a third, and Malela a
fourth, so that they are far from relating the passage
in the same manner.

In short, the calculations of Hodgson, Halley,
Whiston, and Gale Morris have demonstrated that
Phlegon and Thallus speak of a natural eclipse
which happened November 24, in the first year of
the two hundred and second Olympiad, and not in
the fourth year, as Eusebius pretends. Its size at
Nicsea in Bithynia, was, according to Whiston, only
from nine to ten digits, that is to say, two-thirds and
a half of the sun's disc. It began at a quarter past
eight, and ended at five minutes past ten, and be-
tween Cairo in Egypt, and Jerusalem, according to
Mr. Gale Morris, the sun was totally obscured for
nearly two minutes. At Jerusalem the middle of the
eclipse happened about an hour and a quarter after
noon.

1 80 Philosophical

But what ought to spare all this discussion is that
Tertullian says the day became suddenly dark while
the sun was in the midst of his career; that the
pagans believed that it was an eclipse, not knowing
that it had been predicted by the prophet Amos in
these words : "I will cause the sun to go down at
noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day."
"They," adds Tertullian, "who have sought for the
cause of this event and could not discover it, have
denied it ; but the fact is certain, and you will find it
noted in your archives."

Origen, on the contrary, says that it is not as-
tonishing foreign authors have said nothing about
the darknesses of which the evangelists speak, since
they only appeared in the environs of Jerusalem ;
Judaea, according to him, being designated under the
name of all the earth in more than one place in Scrip-
ture. He also avows that the passage in the Gospel
of St. Luke, in which we read that in his time all
the earth was covered with darkness, on account of
an eclipse of the sun, had been thus falsified by some
ignorant Christian who thought thereby to throw a
light on the text of the evangelist, or by some ill-
intentioned enemy w^ho wished a pretext to calum-
niate the Church, as if the evangelists had remarked
an eclipse at a time when it was very evident that
it could not have happened. "It is true," adds he,
"that Phlegon says that there was one under Tibe-
rius, but as he does not say that it happened at the
full moon there is nothing wonderful in that."

X)ictionary. i8i

"These obscurations," continues Origen, "were
of the nature of those which covered Egypt in the
time of Moses, and were not felt in the quarter in
which the Israehtes dwelt. Those of Egypt lasted
three days, while those of Jerusalem only lasted
three hours ; the first were after the manner of the
second, and even as Moses raised his hands to
heaven and invoked the Lord to draw them down on
Eg}-pt, so Jesus Christ, to cover Jerusalem with
darkness, extended his hands on the cross against an
ungrateful people who had cried : 'Crucify him,
crucify him !' "

We may, in this case, exclaim with Plutarch,
that the darkness of superstition is more dangerous
than that of eclipses.

' ECONOMY (RURAL).

The primitive economy, that which is the foun-
dation of all the rest, is rural. In early times it
was exhibited in the patriarchal life and especially
in that of Abraham, who made a long journey
through the arid deserts of Memphis to buy corn.
I shall continue, with due respect, to discard all that
is divine in the history of Abraham, and attend to
his rural economy alone.

I do not learn that he ever had a house ; he
quitted the most fertile country of the universe and
towns in which there were commodious houses, to
go wandering in countries, the languages of which
he did not understand.

1 82 Philosophical

He went from Sodom into the desert of Gerar
without forming the least establishment. When he
turned away Hagar and the child Ishmael it was still
in a desert and all the food he gave them was a mor-
sel of bread and a cruse of water. When he was
about to sacrifice his son Isaac to the Lord it was
again in a desert. He cut the wood himself to
burn the victim and put it on the back of Isaac,
whom he was going to immolate.

His wife died in a place called Kirgath-arba, or
Hebron ; he had not six feet of earth in which to
bury her, but was obliged to buy a cave to deposit
her body. This was the only piece of land which
he ever possessed.

However, he had many children, for, without
reckoning Isaac and his posterity, his second wife
Keturah, at the age of one liundred and forty years,
according to the ordinary calculation, bore him five
male children, who departed towards Arabia.

It is not said that Isaac had a single piece of land
in the country in which his father died ; on the con-
trary, he went into the desert of Gerar with his wife,
Rebecca, to the same Abimelech, king of Gerar, who
had been in love with his mother.

The king of the desert became also amorous of
Rebecca, whom her husband caused to pass for his
sister, as Abraham had acted with regard to Sarah
and this same King Abimelech forty years before.
It is rather astonishing that in this family the wife
always passed for the sister when there was any-

Dictionary. 1 83

thing to be gained, but as these facts are consecrated,
it is for us to maintain a respectful silence.

Scripture says that Abraham enriched himself in
this horrible country, which became fertile for his
benefit, and that he became extremely powerful.
But it is also mentioned that he had no water to
drink; that he had a great quarrel with the king's
herdsmen for a well ; and it is easy to discover that
he still had not a house of his own.

His children, Esau and Jacob, had not a greater
establishment than their father. Jacob was obliged
to seek his fortune in Mesopotamia, whence Abra-
ham came ; he served seven years for one of the
daughters of Laban, and seven other years to obtain
the second daughter. He fled with his wives and
the flocks of his father-in-law, who pursued him.
A precarious fortune, that of Jacob.

Esau is represented as wandering like Jacob.
None of the twelve patriarchs, the children of Jacob,
had any fixed dwelling, or a field of which they were
the proprietors. They reposed in their tents like
Bedouin Arabs.

It is clear that this patriarchal life would not
conveniently suit the temperature of our atmos-
phere. A good cultivator, such as Pignoux of Au-
vergne, must have a convenient house with an as-
pect towards the east, large barns and stables, stalls
properly built, the whole amounting to about fifty
thousand francs of our present money in value. He
must sow a hundred acres with corn, besides having

1 84 Philosophical

good pastures; he should possess some acres of
vineyard, and about fifty for inferior grain and
herbs, thirty acres of wood, a plantation of mul-
berries, silkworms, and bees. With all these advan-
tages well economized, he can maintain a family in
abundance. His land will daily improve; he will
support them without fearing the irregularity of the
seasons and the weight of taxes, because one good
year repairs the damages of two bad ones. He will
enjoy in his domain a real sovereignty, which will
be subject only to the laws. It is the most natural
state of man, the most tranquil, the most happy, and,
unfortunately, the most rare.

The son of this venerable patriarch, seeing him-
self rich, is disgusted with paying the humiliating
tax of the taille. Having unfortunately learned some
Latin he repairs to town, buys a post which exempts
him from the tax and which bestows nobility. He
sells his domain to pay for his vanity, marries a girl
brought up in luxury who dishonors and ruins him ;
he dies in beggary, and his only son wears a livery in
Paris.

ECONOMY OF SPEECH—

TO SPEAK BY ECONOMY.

This is an expression consecrated in its appro-
priation by the fathers of the Church and even by
the primitive propagators of our holy religion. It
signifies the application of oratory to circumstances.

Dictionary. 185

For example : St. Paul, being a Christian, comes
to the temple of the Jews to perform the Judaic rites,
in order to show that he does not forsake the Mo-
saic law ; he is recognized at the end of a week and
accused of having profaned the temple. Loaded
with blows, he is dragged along by the mob; the
tribune of the cohort — tribunis cohortis — arrives,
and binds him with a double chain. The next day
this tribune assembles the council and carries Paul
before it, when the High Priest Ananias commences
proceedings by giving him a box on the ear, on
which Paul salutes him with the epithet of "a whited
wall."

"But when Paul perceived that the one part were
Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in
the council, 'Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the
son of a Pharisee, of the hope and resurrection of
the dead I am called in question.' And when he had
so said there arose a discussion between the Phari-
sees and the Sadducees, and the multitude was di-
vided. For the Sadducees say that there is no
resurrection, neither angel nor spirit, but the Phari-
sees confess both."

It is very evident from the text that Paul was not
a Pharisee after he became a Christian and that
there was in this affair no question either of resur-
rection or hope, of angel or spirit.

The text shows that Paul spoke thus only to em-
broil the Pharisees and Sadducees. This was speak-
ing with economy, that is to say, with prudence ; it

1 86 Philosophical

was a pious artifice which, perhaps, would not have
been permitted to any but an apostle.

It is thus that almost all the fathers of the Church
have spoken "with economy." St. Jerome develops
this method admirably in his fifty-fourth letter to
Pammachus. Weigh his words. After having said
that there are occasions when it is necessary to pre-
sent a loaf and to throw a stone, he continues thus :

"Pray read Demosthenes, read Cicero, and if
these rhetoricians displease you because their art
consists in speaking of the seeming rather than the
true, read Plato, Theophrastus, Xenophon, Aris-
totle, and all those who, having dipped into the foun-
tain of Socrates, drew different waters from it. Is
there among them any candor, any simplicity?
What terms among them are not ambiguous, and
what sense do they not make free with to bear away
the palm of victory? Origen, Methodius, Eusebius,
Apollinarus, have written a million of arguments
against Celsus and Porphyry. Consider with what
artifice, with what problematic subtlety they combat
the spirit of the devil. They do not say what they
think, but what it is expedient to say : Non quod
seiitiunt, sed quod nccesse est dicunt. And not to
mention other Latins — Tertullian, Cyprian, Minu-
tius, Victorinus, Lactantius, and Hilarius — whom I
will not cite here ; I will content myself with relat-
ing the example of the Apostle Paul," etc.

St. Augustine often writes with economy. He
so accommodates himself to time and circumstances

Dictionary. 187

that in one of his epistles he confesses that he ex-
plained the Trinity only because he must say some-
thing.

Assuredly this was not because he doubted the
Holy Trinity, but he felt how ineffable this mystery
is and wished to content the curiosity of the people.

This method was always received in theology.
It employed an argument against the Eucratics,
which was the cause of triumph to the Carpocratians ;
and when it afterwards disputed with the Carpo-
cratians its arms were changed.

It is asserted that Jesus Christ died for many
when the number of rejected is set forth, but when
his universal bounty is to be manifested he is said to
have died for all. Here you take the real sense for
the figurative ; there the figurative for the real, as
prudence and expediency direct.

Such practices are not admitted in justice. A
witness would be punished who told the pour and
contre of a capital offence. But there is an infinite
difference between vile human interests, which re-
quire the greatest clearness, and divine interests,
which are hidden in an impenetrable abyss. The
same judges who require indubitable demonstrative
proofs will be contented in sermons with moral
proofs, and even with declamations exhibiting no
proofs at all.

St. Augustine speaks with economy, when he
says, "I believe, because it is absurd ; I believe, be-
cause it is impossible." These words, which would

1 88 Philosophical

be extravagant in all worldly affairs, are very re-
spectable in theology. They signify that what is
absurd and impossible to mortal eyes is not so to
the eyes of God ; God has revealed to me these pre-
tended absurdities, these apparent impossibilities,
therefore I ought to believe them.

An advocate would not be allowed to speak thus
at the bar. They would confine in a lunatic asylum
a witness who might say, "I assert that the accused,
while shut up in a country house in Martinique,
killed a man in Paris, and I am the more certain of
this homicide because it is absurd and impossible."
But revelations, miracles, and faith are quite a dis-
tinct order of things.

The same St. Augustine observes in his one hun-
dred and fifty-third letter, "It is written that the
whole world belongs to the faithful, and infidels
have not an obolus that they possess legitimately."

If upon this principle a brace of bankers were to
wait upon me to assure me that they were of the
faithful, and in that capacity had appropriated the
property belonging to me, a miserable worldling, to
themselves, it is certain that they would be com-
mitted to the Chatelet, in spite of the economy of the
language of St. Augustine.

St. Irenaeus asserts that we must not condemn the
incest of the two daughters of Lot, nor that of Tha-
mar with her father-in-law, because the Holy Scrip-
ture has not expressly declared them criminal. This
verbal economy prevents not the legal punishment

Dictionary. 189

of incest among ourselves. It is true that if the
Lord expressly ordered people to commit incest it
would not be sinful, which is the economy of Ire-
nseus. His laudable object is to make us respect
everything in the Holy Scriptures, but as God has
not expressly praised the foregoing doings of the
daughters of Lot and of Judah we are permitted to
condemn them.

All the first Christians, without exception,
thought of war like the Quakers and Dunkards of
the present day, and the Brahmins, both ancient and
modern. Tertullian is the father who is most ex-
plicit against this legal species of murder, which our
vile human nature renders expedient. "No custom,
no rule," says he, "can render this criminal de-
struction legitimate."

Nevertheless, after assuring us that no Christian
can carry arms, he says, "by economy," in the same
book, in order to intimidate the Roman Empire, "al-
though of such recent origin, we fill your cities and
your armies."

It is in the same spirit that he asserts that Pilate
was a Christian in his heart, and the whole of his
apology is filled with similar assertions, which re-
doubled the zeal of his proselytes.

Let us terminate these examples of the economi-
cal style, which are numberless, by a passage of St.
Jerome, in his controversy with Jovian upon second
marriages. The holy Jerome roundly asserts that it
is plain, by the formation of the two sexes — in the

190 Philosophical

description of which he is rather particular — that
they are destined for each otlier, and for propaga-
tion. It follows, therefore, tliat they are to make
love without ceasing, in order that their respective
faculties may not be bestowed in vain. This behig
the case, why should not men and women marry
again? Why, indeed, is a man to deny his wife to
his friend if a cessation of attention on his own part
be personally convenient ? He may present the wife
of another with a loaf of bread if she be hungry,
and why may not her other wants be supplied, if
they are urgent ? Functions are not given to lie dor-
mant, etc.

After such a passage it is useless to quote any
more, but it is necessary to remark, by the way, that
the economical stjle, so intimately connected with
the polemical, ought to be employed with the great-
est circimispection, and that it belongs not to the
profane to imitate the things hazarded by the saints,
either as regards the heat of their zeal or the
piquancy of their deliver)-.

ELEGAXXE.

According to some authors this word comes
from "electus," chosen ; it does not appear that its
et)-molog>- can be derived from any other Latin
word, since all is choice that is elegant. Elegance is
the result of regularity and grace.

This word is employed in speaking of painting
and sculpture. Elegans signum is opposed to sig-

DtcGonaiT. 191

nmm rigens — -- i itr -j--::z, ir^t ::_i :,

ontfines of v.h ith softness, to a
cold and bac

The sever _.-.„--- .__^ ^^^

odkms sense : irrfad

aU lands :: tri' li irt 1 ^ : :

fetched ; t .1 :

ages. '•:

Thev ci.'. r: 1 —

days 11 .luiJirio),

and t Z . ^raids

the : : : - '^^t

degr- :i : r i

laudatory. C -

dred 1

At:: : :....: ..z.-: _.^

is sci: .T : T :^T -

Tl:- :-- : -

dent ricrr - -

qnence, ir - ::-: :.: .:-.-
dselr mt t , - ^- ;e.

The V : - . ^,

coantenar. ; r 1 t t,^

we say e^T^:. z -^.^r ■ - -:
alwavs relates :: _ \ ~::.:r. 1:2-

tk-n.

The el^;ance of a discourse is d:
it is a t:5.r: : f : t : :t is neidier Ae h^r

192 Philosophical

alone; it is clearness, metre, and choice of words,
united.

There are languages in Europe in which nothing
is more scarce than an elegant expression. Rude
terminations, frequent consonants, and auxihary
verbs grammatically repeated in the same sentence,
offend the ears even of the natives themselves.

A discourse may be elegant without being good,
elegance being, in reality, only a choice of words;
but a discourse cannot be absolutely good without
being elegant. Elegance is still more necessary to
poetry than eloquence, because it is a part of that
harmony so necessary to verse.

An orator may convince and affect even without
elegance, purity, or number; a poet cannot really
do so without being elegant : it is one of the princi-
pal merits of Virgil. Horace is much less elegant
in his satires and epistles, so that he is much less of
a poet sermoni proprior.

The great point in poetry and the oratorical art
is that the elegance should never appear forced ; and
the poet in that, as in other things, has greater diffi-
culties than the orator, for harmony being the base
of his art, he must not permit a succession of harsh
syllables. He must even sometimes sacrifice a little
of the thought to elegance of expression, which is a
constraint that the orator never experiences.

It should be remarked that if elegance always
appears easy, all that is easy and natural is not, how-
ever, elegant.

Dictionary. 193

It is seldom said of a comedy that it is elegantly
written. The simplicity and rapidity of a familiar
dialogue exclude this merit, so proper to all other
poetry. Elegance would seem inconsistent with the
comic. A thing elegantly said would not be laughed
at, though most of the verses of Moliere's "Amphit-
ryon," with the exception of those of mere pleas-
antry, are elegantly written. The mixture of gods
and men in this piece, so unique in its kind, and the
irregular verses, forming a number of madrigals,
are perhaps the cause.

A madrigal requires to be more elegant than an
epigram, because the madrigal bears somewhat the
nature of the ode, and the epigram belongs to the
comic. The one is made to express a delicate senti-
ment, and the other a ludicrous one.

Elegance should not be attended to in the sub-
lime : it would weaken it. If we read of the elegance
of the Jupiter Olympus of Phidias, it would be a
satire. The elegance of the "Venus of Praxiteles"
may be properly alluded to.

ELIAS OR ELIJAH, AND ENOCH.

Elias and Enoch are two very important per-
sonages of antiquity. They are the only mortals
who have been taken out of the world without hav-
ing first tasted of death. A very learned man has
pretended that these are allegorical personages.
The father and mother of Elias are unknown. He
believes that his country, Gilead, signifies nothing

Vol. b'— 13

194 Philosophical

but the circulation of time. He proves it to have
come from Galgala, which signifies revolution. But
what signifies the name of the village of Galgala !

The word Elias has a sensible relation to that
of Elios, the sun. The burned sacrifice offered by
Elias, and lighted by fire from heaven, is an image
of that which can be done by the united rays of the
sun. The rain which falls, after great heats, is also
a physical truth.

The chariot of fire and the fiery horses, which
bore Elias to heaven, are a lively image of the four
horses of the sun. The return of Elias at the end
of the world seems to accord with the ancient opin-
ion, that the sun would extinguish itself in the
waters, in the midst of the general destruction that
was expected, for almost all antiquity was for a long
time persuaded that the world would sooner or later
be destroyed.

We do not adopt these allegories ; we only stand
by those related in the Old Testament.

Enoch is as singular a personage as Elias, only
that Genesis names his father and son, while the
family of Elias is unknown. The inhabitants of
both East and West have celebrated this Enoch.

The Holy Scripture, which is our infallible guide,
informs us that Enoch was the father of Methuselah,
or Methusalem, and that he only dwelt on the earth
three hundred and sixty-five years, which seems a
very short life for one of the first patriarchs. It is
said that he walked in the way of God and that he

Dictionary. 195

appeared no longer because God carried him away.
"It is that," says Calmet, "which makes the holy
fathers and most of the commentators assure us that
Enoch still lives ; that God has borne him out of the
world as well as Elias ; that both will come before
the last judgment to oppose the antichrist; that
Elias will preach to the Jews, and Enoch to the
Gentiles."

St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews — which
has been contested — says expressly, "by faith Enoch
was translated, that he should not see death, be-
cause death had translated him,"

St. Justin, or somebody who had taken his name,
says that Elias and Enoch are in a terrestrial para-
dise, and that they there wait the second coming of
Jesus Christ.

St. Jerome, on the contrary, believes that Enoch
and Elias are in heaven. It is the same Enoch, the
seventh man after Adam, who is pretended to have
written the book quoted by St. Jude.

Tertullian says that this work was preserved in
the ark, and even that Enoch made a second copy
of it after the deluge.

This is what the Holy Scripture and the holy
fathers relate of Enoch ; but the profane writers of
the East tell us much more. They believe that there
really was an Enoch, and that he was the first who
made slaves of prisoners of war; they sometimes
call him Enoc, and sometimes Edris. They say that
he was the same who gave laws to the Egyptians

196 Philosophical

under the name of Thaut, called by the Greeks
Hermes Trismegistus. They give him a son named
Sabi, the author of the religion of the Sabseans.

There was a tradition in Phrygia on a certain
Anach, the same whom the Hebrews call Enoch.
The Phrygians held this tradition from the Chal-
dseans or Babylonians, who also recognized an
Enoch, or Anach, as the inventor of astronomy.

They wept for Enoch one day in the year in
Phrygia, as they wept for Adonis among the Phoeni-
cians.

The ingenious and profound writer, who believes
Elias a person purely allegorical, thinks the same of
Enoch. He believes that Enoch, Anach, Annoch,
signified the year ; that the Orientals wept for it, as
for Adonis, and that they rejoiced at the commence-
ment of the new year ; that Janus, afterwards known
in Italy, was the ancient Anach, or Annoch, of Asia ;
that not only Enoch formerly signified, among all
nations, the beginning and end of the year, but the
last day of the week ; that the names of Anne, John,
Januarius, Janvier, and January, all come from the
same source.

It is difficult to penetrate the depths of ancient
history. When we seize truth in the dark, we are
never sure of retaining her. It is absolutely neces-
sary for a Christian to hold by the Scriptures, what-
ever difficulty he may have in understanding them.

Dictionary. 197

ELOQUENCE.

Eloquence was created before the rules of rhet-
oric, as the languages are formed before grammar.

Nature renders men eloquent under the influence
of great interests or passions, A person much ex-
cited sees things with a different eye from other
men. To him all is the object of rapid comparison
and metaphor. Without premeditation, he vivifies
all, and makes all who listen to him partake of his
enthusiasm.

A very enlightened philosopher has remarked
that people often express themselves by figures;
that nothing is more common or more natural than
the turns called tropes.

Thus, in all languages, the heart burns, courage
is kindled, the eyes sparkle ; the mind is oppressed,
it is divided, it is exhausted ; the blood freezes, the
head is turned upside down ; we are inflated with
pride, intoxicated with vengeance. Nature is every-
where painted in these strong images, which have
become common.

It is from her that instinct learns to assume a
modest tone and air, when it is necessary. The nat-
ural desire of captivating our judges and masters;
the concentrated energies of a profoundly stricken
soul, which prepares to display the sentiments which
oppress it, are the first teachers of this art.

It is the same nature which sometimes inspires
lively and animated sallies ; a strong impulse or a

198 Philosophical

pressing danger prompts the imagination suddenly.
Thus a captain of the first cahphs, seeing the Mus-
sulmans fly from the field of battle, cried out,
"Where are you running to? Your enemies are not
there."

This speech has been given to many captains ; it
is attributed to Cromwell. Strong minds much
oftener accord than fine wits,

Rasi, a Mussulman, captain of the time of Ma-
homet, seeing his Arabs frightened at the death of
their general, Derar, said to them, "What does it
signify that Derar is dead? God is living, and ob-
serves your actions."

Where is there a more eloquent man than that
EngHsh sailor who decided the war against Spain in
1740? "When the Spaniards, having mutilated me,
were going to kill me, I recommended my soul to
God, and my vengeance to my country!"

Nature, then, ehcits eloquence; and if it be said
that poets are created and orators formed, it is ap-
plicable only when eloquence is forced to study the
laws, the genius of the judges, and the manners of
the times. Nature alone is spontaneously eloquent.

The precepts always follow the art. Tisias was
the first who collected the laws of eloquence, of
which nature gives the first rules. Plato afterwards
said, in his "Gorgias," that an orator should have
the subtlety of the logician, the science of the philos-
opher, almost the diction of the poet, and the voice
and gesture of the greatest actors.

Dictionary. 199

Aristotle, also, showed that true philosophy is the
secret guide to perfection in all the arts. He dis-
covered the sources of eloquence in his "Book of
Rhetoric." He showed that logic is the foundation
of the art of persuasion, and that to be eloquent is to
know how to demonstrate.

He distinguished three kinds of eloquence : the
deliberative, the demonstrative, and the judiciary.
The deliberative is employed to exhort those who
deliberate in taking a part in war, in peace, etc. ; the
demonstrative, to show that which is worthy of
praise or blame; the judiciary, to persuade, absolve,
condemn, etc.

He afterwards treats of the manners and passions
with which all orators should be acquainted.

He examines the proofs which should be em-
ployed in these three species of eloquence, and
finally he treats of elocution, without which all
would languish. He recommends metaphors, pro-
vided they are just and noble ; and, above all, he re-
quires consistency and decorum.

All these precepts breathe the enlightened preci-
sion of a philosopher, and the politeness of an Athe-
nian ; and, in giving the rules of eloquence, he is
eloquent with simplicity.

It is to be remarked, that Greece was the only
country in the world in which the laws of eloquence
were then known, because it was the only one in
which true eloquence existed.

The grosser art was known to all men ; sublime

200 Philosophical

traits have everywhere escaped from nature at all
times; but to rouse the minds of the whole of a
polished nation — to please, convince, and affect at
the same time, belonged only to the Greeks.

The Orientals were almost all slaves; and it is
one of the characteristics of servitude to exaggerate
everything. Thus the Asiatic eloquence was mon-
strous. The West was barbarous in the time of
Aristotle.

True eloquence began to show itself in the time
of the Gracchi, and was not perfected until the time
of Cicero. Mark Antony, the orator Hortensius,
Curion, Csesar, and several others, were eloquent
men.

This eloquence perished with the republic, like
that of Athens. Sublime eloquence, it is said, be-
longs only to liberty; it consists in telling bold
truths, in displaying strong reasons and representa-
tions. A man often dislikes truth, fears reason, and
likes a well-turned compliment better than the sub-
limest eloquence.

Cicero, after having given the examples in his
harangues, gave the precepts in his "Book of the
Orator"; he followed almost all the methods of
Aristotle, and explained himself in the style of
Plato.

It distinguishes the simple species, the temper-
ate, and the sublime.

Rollin has followed this division in his "Tr*;atise
on Study"; and he pretends that which Cicero does

Dictionary. 201

not, that the "temperate" is a beautiful river, shaded
with green forests on both sides ; the "simple," a
properly-served table, of which all the meats are of
excellent flavor, and from which all refinement is
banished; that the "sublime" thunders forth, and is
an impetuous current which overthrows all that re-
sists it.

Without sitting down to this table, without fol-
lowing this thunderbolt, this current, or this river,
every man of sense must see that simple eloquence
is that which has simple things to expose, and that
clearness and elegance are all that are necessary to
it.

There is no occasion to read Aristotle, Cicero,
and Quintilian, to feel that an advocate who begins
by a pompous exordium on the subject of a partition
wall is ridiculous ; it was, however, the fault of the
bar until the middle of the seventeenth century ;
they spoke with emphasis of the most trivial things.
Volumes of these examples may be compiled ; but
all might be reduced to this speech of a witty advo-
cate, who, observing that his adversary was speak-
ing of the Trojan war and of Scamander, inter-
rupted him by saying, "The court will observe that
my client is not called Scamander, but Michaut."
The sublime species can only regard powerful in-
terests, treated of in a great assembly.

There may still be seen lively traces of it in the
Parliament of England': several harangues partook
of it which were pronounced there in 1739, when

202 Philosophical

they debated about declaring war against Spain.
The spirits of Cicero and Demosthenes seem to have
dictated several passages in their speeches ; but they
will not descend to posterity like those of the Greeks
and Romans, because they want the art and charm
of diction, which place the seal of immortality on
good works.

The temperate species is that of those preparatory
discourses, of those public speeches, and of those
studied compliments, in which the deficiency of mat-
ter must be concealed with flowers.

These three species are often mingled, as also the
three objects of eloquence, according to Aristotle :
the great merit of the orator consists in uniting them
with judgment.

Great eloquence can scarcely be known to the bar
in France, because it does not conduct to honors, as
in Athens, Rome, and at present in London ; neither
has it great public interests for its object; it is con-
fined to funeral orations, in which it borders a little
upon poetry.

Bossuet, and after him Flechier, seem to have
obeyed that precept of Plato, which teaches us that
the elocution of an orator may sometimes be the
same as that of a poet.

Pulpit oratory had been almost barbarous until
P. Bourdaloue ; he was one of the first who caused
reason to be spoken there.

The English did not arrive at that art until a later
date, as is avowed by Burnet, bishop of SaHsbury.

Dictionary. 203

They knew not the funeral oration ; they avoided,
in their sermons, all those vehement turns which ap-
peared not to them consistent with the simplicity of
the Gospel ; and they were diffident of using those
far-fetched divisions which are condemned by Arch-
bishop Fenelon, in his dialogues "Sur I' Eloquence."

Though our sermons turn on the most important
subjects to man, they supply few of those striking
parts which, like the fine passages of Cicero and
Demosthenes, are fit to become the models of all the
western nations. The reader will therefore be glad
to learn the efifect produced by M. Massillon, since
bishop of Clermont, the first time that he preached
his famous sermon on the small number of the elect.
A kind of transport seized all the audience ; they
rose involuntarily ; the murmurs of acclamation and
surprise were so great as to disturb the orator ; and
this confusion only served to augment the pathos of
his discourse. The following is the passage :

"I will suppose that this is our last hour, that the
heavens open over our heads, that time is past, and
that eternity commences ; that Jesus Chrjst is going
to appear to judge us according to our works, and
that we are all here to receive from Him the sentence
of eternal life or death : I ask you, overwhelmed
with terror like yourselves, without separating my
lot from your own, and putting myself in the same
situation in which we must all one day appear before
God our judge — if Jesus Christ were now to make
the terrible separation of the just from the unjust.

204 Philosophical

do you believe that the greater part would be saved ?
Do you believe that the number of the righteous
would be in the least degree equal to the number
of the sinners ? Do you believe that, if He now dis-
cussed the works of the great number who are in
this church, He would find ten righteous souls
among us ? Would He find a single one ?"

There are several different editions of this dis-
course, but the substance is the same in all of them.

This figure, the boldest which was ever em-
ployed, and the best timed, is one of the finest turns
of eloquence which can be read either among the
ancients or moderns ; and the rest of the discourse
is not unworthy of this brilliant appeal.

Preachers who cannot imitate these fine models
would do well to learn them by heart, and deliver
them to their congregations — supposing that they
have the rare talent of declamation — instead of
preaching to them, in a languishing style, things as
common-place as they are useless.

It is asked, if eloquence be permitted to histo-
rians? That which belongs to them consists in the
art of arranging events, in being always elegant in
their expositions, sometimes lively and impressive,
sometimes elaborate and florid ; in being strong and
true in their pictures of general manners and prin-
cipal personages, and in the reflections naturally in-
corporated with the narrative, so that they should
not appear to be obtruded. The eloquence of De-
mosthenes belongs not to Thucydides; a studied

Dictionary. 205

harangue, put into the mouth of a hero who never
pronounced it is, in the opinion of many enhghtened
minds, nothing more than a splendid defect.

If, however, these hcences be permitted, the fol-
lowing is an occasion in which Mezeray, in his great
history, may obtain grace for a boldness so approved
by the ancients, to whom he is equal, at least on this
occasion. It is at the commencement of the reign of
Henry IV., when that prince, with very few troops,
was opposed near Dieppe by an army of thirty thou-
sand men, and was advised to retire into England,
Mezeray excels himself in making a speech for Mar-
shal Biron, who really was a man of genius, and
might have said a part of that which the historian
attributes to him:

"What, sire, are you advised to cross the sea, as
if there was no other way of preserving your king-
dom than by quitting it? If you were not in France,
your friends would have you run all hazards and
surmount all obstacles to get there; and now you
are here, they would have you depart — would have
you voluntarily do that to which the greatest efforts
of your enemies ought not to constrain you ! In
your present state, to go out of France only for
four-and-twenty hours would be to banish yourself
from it forever. As to the danger, it is not so great
as represented ; those who think to overcome us are
either the same whom we shut up so easily in Paris,
or people who are not much better, and will rapidly
have more subjects of dispute among themselves

2o6 Philosophical

than against us. In short, sire, we are in France,
and we must remain here ; we must show ourselves
worthy of it; we must either conquer it or die for
it ; and even when there is no other safety for your
sacred person than in flight, I well know that you
would a thousand times rather die planted in the
soil, than save yourself by such means. Your maj-
esty would never suffer it to be said that a younger
brother of the house of Lorraine had made you re-
tire, and, still less, that you had been seen to beg
at the door of a foreign prince. No, no, sire — there
is neither crown nor honor for you across the sea ;
if you thus demand the succor of England, it will
not be granted ; if you present yourself at the port
of Rochelle, as a man anxious to save himself, you
will only meet with reproaches and contempt. I
cannot believe that you would rather trust your per-
son to the inconstancy of the waves, or the mercy of
a stranger, than to so many brave gentlemen and
old soldiers, who are ready to serve you as ramparts
and bucklers ; and I am too much devoted to your
majesty to conceal from you, that if you seek your
safety elsewhere than in their virtue, they will be
obliged to seek theirs in a different party from your
own."

This fine speech which Mezeray puts into the
mouth of Marshal Biron is no doubt what Henry
IV. felt in his heart.

Much more might be said upon the subject ; but
the books treating of eloquence have already said

Dictionary. 207

too much ; and in an enlightened age, genius, aided
by examples, knows more of it than can be taught
by all the masters in the world.

EMBLEMS.

FIGURES, ALLEGORIES, SYMBOLS, ETC.

In antiquity, everything is emblematical and fig-
urative. The Chaldaeans began with placing a ram,
two kids, and a bull among the constellations, to in-
dicate the productions of the earth in spring. In
Persia, fire is the emblem of the divinity ; the celes-
tial dog gives notice to the Egyptians of the inunda-
tions of the Nile ; the serpent, concealing its tail in
its head, becomes the image of eternity. All nature
is painted and disguised.

There are still to be found in India many of those
gigantic and terrific statues which we have already
mentioned, representing virtue furnished with ten
arms, with which it may successfully contend
against the vices, and which our poor missionaries
mistook for representations of the devil ; taking it
for granted, that all those who did not speak French
or Italian were worshippers of the devil.

Show all these symbols devised by antiquity to a
man of clear sense, but who has never heard them
at all mentioned or alluded to, and he will not have
the slightest idea of their meaning. It would be to
him a perfectly new language.

The ancient poetical theologians were under the

2o8 Philosophical

necessity of ascribing to the deity eyes, hands, and
feet ; of describing him under the figure of a man.

St. Clement of Alexandria quotes verses from
Xenophanes the Colophonian, which state that every
species of animal supplies metaphor to aid the imagi-
nation in its ideas of the deity — the wings of the
bird, the speed of the horse, and the strength of the
lion. It is evident, from these verses of Xenophanes,
that it is by no means a practice of recent date for
men to represent God after their own image. The
ancient Thracian Orpheus, the first theologian
among the Greeks, who lived long before Homer,
according to the same Clement of Alexandria, de-
scribes God as seated upon the clouds, and tranquilly
ruling the whirlwind and the storm. His feet reach
the earth, and His hands extend from one ocean to
the other. He is the beginning, middle, and end of
all things.

Everything being thus represented by figure and
emblem, philosophers, and particularly those among
them who travelled to India, employed the same
method; their precepts were emblems, were enig-
mas.

"Stir not the fire with a sword :" that is, aggra-
vate not men who are angry.

"Place not a lamp under a bushel :'" conceal not
the truth from men.

"Abstain from beans:" frequent not popular as-
semblies, in which votes were given by white or
black beans.

Dictionary. 209

"Have no swallows about your house :" keep
away babblers.

"During a tempest, worship the echo :" while
civil broils endure, withdraw into retirement.

"Never write on snow :" throw not away in-
struction upon weak and imbecile minds.

"Never devour either your heart or your brains :'''
never give yourself up to useless anxiety or intense
study.

Such are the maxims of Pythagoras, the meaning
of which is sufficiently obvious.

The most beautiful of all emblems is that of God,
whom Timaeus of Locris describes under the image
of "A circle whose centre is everywhere and circum-
ference nowhere." Plato adopted this emblem, and
Pascal inserted it among his materials for future
use, which he entitled his "Thoughts."

In metaphysics and in morals, the ancients have
said everything. We always encounter or repeat
them. All modern books of this description are
merely repetitions.

The farther we advance eastward, the more prev-
alent and established we find the employment of em-
blems and figures : but, at the same time, the images
in use are more remote from our own manners and
customs.

The emblems which appear most singular to us
are those which were in frequent if not in sacred use
among the Indians, Egyptians, and Syrians. These
people bore aloft in their solemn processions, and

Vol. 8—14

2IO Philosophical

with the most profound respect, the appropriate or-
gans for the perpetuation of the species — the sym-
bols of life. We smile at such practices, and con-
sider these people as simple barbarians. What
would they have said on seeing us enter our temples
wearing at our sides the weapons of destruction ?

At Thebes, the sins of the people were repre-
sented by a goat. On the coast of Phoenicia, a naked
woman with the lower part of her body like that of
a fish was the emblem of nature.

We cannot be at all surprised if this employment
of symbols extended to the Hebrews, as they consti-
tuted a people near the Desert of Syria.

Of Some Emblems Used by the Jezvish Nation.

One of the most beautiful emblems in the Jewish
books, is the following exquisite passage in Ec-
clesiastes :

"When the grinders shall cease because they are
few ; when those that look out of the windows shall
be darkened; when the almond tree shall flourish;
when the grasshopper shall become a burden ; when
desire shall fail ; the silver cord be loosed ; the
golden bowl be fractured ; and the pitcher broken
at the fountain."

The meaning is, that the aged lose their teeth;
that their sight becomes impaired ; that their hair
becomes white, like the blossom of the almond tree ;
that their feet become like the grasshopper ; that
their hair drops off like the leaves of the fir tree;

Dictionary. 2 1 1

that they have lost the power of communicating Hfe ;
and that it is time for them to prepare for their long
journey.

The "Song of Songs," as is well known, is a con-
tinued emblem, of the marriage of Jesus Christ with
the church.

"Let him kiss me with a kiss of his mouth, for
thy breasts are better than wine. Let him put his
left hand under my head, and embrace me with his
right hand. How beautiful art thou, my love : thy
eyes are like those of the dove ; thy hair is as a flock
of goats ; thy lips are like a ribbon of scarlet, and
thy cheeks like pomegranates ; how beautiful is thy
neck ! how thy lips drop honey ! my beloved put in
his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels
were moved for him ; thy navel is like a round gob-
let ; thy belly is like a heap of wheat set about with
lilies ; thy two breasts are like two young roes that
are twins ; thy neck is like a tower of ivory ; thy
nose is as the tower of Lebanon ; thy head is like
Mount Carmel ; thy stature is that of a palm tree.
I said, I will ascend the palm tree and will gather of
its fruits. What shall we do for our little sister?
she has no breasts. If she be a wall, we will build
upon her a tower of silver ; if she be a door, we will
enclose her with boards of cedar."

It would be necessary to translate the whole can-
ticle, in order to see that it is an emblem from be-
ginning to end. The ingenious Calmet, in particu-
lar, demonstrates that the palm tree which the lover

212 Philosophical

ascended is the cross to which our Lord Jesus Christ
was condemned. It must however be confessed,
that sound and pure moral doctrine is preferable to
these allegories.

We find in the books of this people a great num-
ber of emblems and types which shock at the present
day, and excite at once our incredulity and ridicule,
but which, to the Asiatics, appear clear, natural, and
unexceptionable.

God appeared to Isaiah, the son of Amos, and
said to him, "Go take thy girdle from thy loins and
thy shoes from thy feet," and he did so, walking-
naked and barefoot. And the Lord said, "Like as my
servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot for
three years for a sign upon Egypt and Ethiopia, so
shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian
and Ethiopian prisoners, young and old, naked and
barefoot, with their hind parts uncovered, to the
shame of Egypt."

This appears to us exceedingly strange: but let
us inform ourselves a little about what is passing in
our own times among Turks, and Africans, and in
India, where we go to trade with so much avidity
and so little success. We shall learn that it is by no
means unusual to see the santons there absolutely
naked, and not only in that state preaching to
women, but permitting them to salute particular
parts of their body, yet neither indulging or inspir-
ing the slightest portion of licentious or unchaste
feeling. We shall see on the banks of the Ganges

Dictionary. 213

an innumerable company both of men and women
naked from head to foot, extending their arms to-
wards heaven, and waiting for the moment of an
edipse to plunge into the riven The citizens of
Paris and Rome should not be too ready to think
all the rest of the world bound down to the same
modes of living and thinking as themselves.

Jeremiah, who prophesied in the reign of Jehoia-
kim, king of Jerusalem, in favor of the king of
Babylon, puts chains and cords about his neck, by
order of the Lord, and sends them to the kings of
Edom, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon, by their ambassa-
dors who had been sent to Zedekiah at Jerusalem.
He commands them to address their master in these
words :

"Thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel,
thus shall ye say unto your masters : I have made
the earth, the men, and the beasts of burden which
are upon the ground, by my great power and by my
outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it
seemed good unto me. And now have I given all
these lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the
king of Babylon, my servant, and all the beasts of
the field have I given him besides, that they may
serve him. I spake also all these words to Zedekiah,
king of Judah, saying unto him, submit your neck
to the yoke of the king of Babylon, serve him, him
and his people, and you shall live," etc.

Accordingly, Jeremiah was accused of betraying
his king, and of prophesying in favor of the enemy

214 Philosophical

for the sake of money. It has even been asserted
that he was stoned. It is clear that the cords and
chains were the emblem of that servitude to which
Jeremiah was desirous that the nation should sub-
mit.

In a similar manner we are told by Herodotus,
that one of the kings of Scythia sent Darius a pres-
ent of a bird, a mouse, a frog, and five arrows. This
emblem implied that, if Darius did not fly as fast as
a bird, a mouse, or a frog, he would be pierced by
the arrows of the Scythians. The allegory of Jere-
miah was that of weakness ; the emblem of the
Scythians was that of courage.

Thus, also, when Sextus Tarquinius consulted
his father, whom we call Tarquinius Superbus,
about the policy he should adopt to the Gabii, Tar-
quin, who was walking in his garden, answered only
by striking ofif the heads of the tallest poppies. His
son caught his meaning, and put to death the prin-
cipal citizens among them. This was the emblem
of tyranny.

Many learned men have been of opinion that the
history of Daniel, of the dragon, of the den of seven
lions who devoured every day two sheep and two
men, and the history of the angel who transported
Habakkuk by the hair of his head to dine with
Daniel in the lion's den, are nothing more than a
visible allegory, an emblem of the continual vigi-
lance with which God watches over his servants.
But it seems to us a proof of greater piety to behevje

Dictionary. 2 1 5

that it is a real history, like many we find in the
Sacred Scriptures, displaying without figure and
type the divine power, and which profane minds are
not permitted to explore. Let us consider those
only as genuine emblems and allegories, which are
indicated to us as such by Holy Scripture itself.

"In the thirteenth year and the fifteenth day of
the fourth month, as I was in the midst of the cap-
tives on the banks of the river Chobar, the heavens
were opened, and I saw the visions of God," etc.
"The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest,
the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldseans by the
river Chobar, and the hand of the Lord was upon
him."

It is thus that Ezekiel begins his prophecy ; and,
after having seen a fire and a whirlwind, and in the
midst of the fire four living animals resembling a
man, having four faces and four wings with feet re-
sembling those of calves, and a wheel which was
upon the earth, and which had four parts, the four
parts of the wheel going at the same time, etc.

He goes on to say, "The spirit entered into me,

and placed me firm upon my feet Then the

Lord said unto me : 'Son of man, eat that thou find-
est ; eat this book, and go and speak to the children
of Israel.' So I opened my mouth, and He caused
me to eat that book. And the spirit entered into me
and made me stand upon my feet. And he said
unto me: 'Go and shut thyself up in the midst of
thv house. Son of man, these are the chains with

21 6 Philosophical

which thou shalt set thy face firm against it; thou
shalt be bound,' " etc. " 'And thou, son of man, take
a tile and place it before thee and portray thereon
the city of Jerusalem.' "

" 'Take also a pan of iron, and thou shalt place
it as a wall of iron between thee and the city ; thou
shalt be before Jerusalem as if thou didst besiege
it ; it is a sign to the house of Israel.' "

After this command God orders him to sleep
three hundred and ninety days on his left side, on
account of the iniquities of the house of Judah.

Before we go further we will transcribe the
words of that judicious commentator Calmet,on this
part of Ezekiel's prophecy, which is at once a his-
tory and an allegory, a real truth and an emblem.
These are the remarks of that learned Benedictine :

"There are some who think that the whole of
this occurred merely in vision ; that a man cannot
continue lying so long on the same side without a
miracle; that, as the Scripture gives us no intima-
tion that this is a prodigy, we ought not to multiply
miraculous acts without necessity; that, if the
prophet continued lying in that manner for three
hundred and ninety days, it was only during the
nights ; in the day he was at liberty to attend to his
affairs. But we do not see any necessity for recur-
ring to a miracle, nor for any circuitous explanation
of the case here stated. It is by no means impos-
sible for a man to continue chained and lying on
his side for three hundred and ninety days. We

Dictionary. 217

have every day before us cases which prove the pos-
sibihty among prisoners, sick persons, and persons
deranged and chained in a state of raving madness.
Prado testifies that he saw a mad person who con-
tinued bound and lying quite naked on his side up-
wards of fifteen years. If all this had occurred only
in vision, how could the Jews of the captivity have
comprehended what Ezekiel meant to say to them?
How would that prophet have been able to execute
the divine commands ? We must in that case admit
likewise that he did not prepare the plan of Jerusa-
lem, that he did not represent the siege, that he was
not bound, that he did not eat the bread of different
kinds of grain in any other than the same way;
namely, that of vision, or ideally."

We cannot but adopt the opinion of the learned
Calmet, which is that of the most respectable inter-
preters. It is evident that the Holy Scripture re-
counts the matter as a real truth, and that such truth
is the emblem, type, and figure of another truth.

"Take unto thee wheat and barley, and beans and
lentils, and millet and vetches, and make cakes of
them for as many days as thou art to sleep on thy
side. Thou shalt eat for three hundred and ninety
days .... thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and
thou shalt cover it with human ordure. Thus shall
the children of Israel eat their bread defiled."

It is evident that the Lord was desirous that the
Israelites should eat their bread defiled. It follows
therefore that the bread of the prophet must have

2i8 Philosophical

been defiled also. This defilement was so real that
Ezekiel expressed actual horror at it. "Alas !" he
exclaimed, "my life (my soul) has not hitherto been
polluted," etc. And the Lord says to him, 'T allow
thee, then, cow's dung instead of man's, and with
that shalt thou prepare thy bread."

It appears, therefore, to have been absolutely es-
sential that the food should be defiled in order to its
becoming an emblem or type. The prophet in fact
put cow-dung with his bread for three hundred and
ninety days, and the case includes at once a fact and
a symbol.

Of the Emblem of Aholah and Aholibah.

The Holy Scripture expressly declares that Aho-
lah is the emblem of Jerusalem. "Son of man, cause
Jerusalem to know her abominations ; thy father
was an Amorite, and thy mother was a Hittite."
The prophet then, without any apprehension of
malignant interpretations or wanton railleries, ad-
dresses the young Aholah in the following words :

"Ubera tua intumuerunt, et pilus ttius ger-
uiinaz'it; et eras niida et confusione plena." — "Thy
breasts were fashioned, and thy hair was grown, and
thou wast naked and confused."

"Et transivi per te; et ecce tempus tuum, tempus
wnantium; et expandi amictum meum super te et
operui ignominiam tuam. Et juravi tibi, et ingres-
sus sum pactum tecum (ait Dominus Deus), et facta
es mihi." — "I passed by and saw thee; and saw thy
time was come, thy time for lovers; and I spread

Dictionary. 2 1 9

my mantle over thee and concealed thy shame. And
I swore to thee, and entered into a contract with
thee, and thou becamest mine."

"Et habens Hdnciam in pulchritudine tua forni-
cata es in nomine tiio; et exposuisti fornicationem
tuani onini transennti, ut ejus iieres." — "And, proud
of thy beauty, thou didst commit fornication without
disguise, and hast exposed thy fornication to every
passerby, to become his."

''Et cuditicavissti tibi hipanar, et fecisti tibi pros-
tibulum in cimctis plateis." — "And thou hast built
a high place for thyself, and a place of eminence in
every public way."

"Et divisisti pedes tiios omni transennti, et multi-
plicasti fornicationes tims." — "And thou hast opened
thy feet to every passerby, and hast multiplied thy
fornications."

"Et fornicata es cum iiliis Egypti vicinis ttiis,
magnarum carnium; et multiplicasti fornicationem
tuam ad irritandum me." — "And thou hast com-
mitted fornication with the Egyptians thy neigh-
bors, powerful in the flesh ; and thou hast multiplied
thy fornication to provoke me."

The article of Aholibah, which signifies Samaria,
is much stronger and still further removed from the
propriety and decorum of modern manners and lan-
guage.

"Denudavit quoque fornicationes siias, discoope-
ruit ignominiam suam." — "And she has made bare
her fornications and discovered her shame."

220 Philosophical

"Multiplicaz'it enim fornicationes suas, recordans
dies adolescentice suce." — "For she has multiplied
her fornications, remembering the days of her
youth."

"£^ insanivit libidine super concubitum eorum
carnes sunt ut carnes asinorum, et sicut fluxiis
equorum, Huxus eorum." — "And she has maddened
for the embraces of those whose flesh is as the flesh
of asses, and whose issue is as the issue of horses."

These images strike us as hcentious and revolting.
They were at that time simply plain and ingenuous.
There are numerous instances of the like in the
"Song of Songs," intended to celebrate the purest
of all possible unions. It must be attentively con-
sidered that these expressions and images are
always delivered with seriousness and gravity, and
that in no book of equally high antiquity is the
slightest jeering or raillery ever applied to the great
subject of human production. When dissoluteness
is condemned, it is so in natural and undisguised
terms, but such are never used to stimulate volup-
tuousness or pleasantry.

This high antiquity has not the slightest touch of
similarity to the licentiousness of Martial, Catullus,
or Petronius.

Of Hosea, and Some Other Emblems.

We cannot regard as a mere vision, as simply
a figure, the positive command given by the Lord to
Hosea to take to himself a wife of whoredoms and

Dictionary. 2.2 1

have by her three children. Children are not pro-
duced in a dream. It is not in a vision that he
made a contract with Gomer, the daughter of
Diblaim, by whom he had two boys and a girl. It
was not in a vision that he afterwards took to him-
self an adulteress by the express order of the Lord,
giving her fifteen pieces of silver and a measure and
a half of barley.

The first of these disgraced women signified
Jerusalem and the second Samaria. But the two
unions with these worthless persons, the three chil-
dren, the fifteen pieces of silver, and the bushel and
a half of barley, were not the less real for having
included or been intended as an emblem.

It was not in a vision that the patriarch Salmon
married the harlot Rahab, the grandmother of
David. It was not in a vision that Judah committed
incest with his daughter-in-law Thamar, from which
incest sprang David. It was not in a vision that
Ruth, David's other grandmother, placed herself in
the bed with Boaz. It was not in a vision that
David murdered Uriah and committed adultery with
Bathsheba, of whom was born King Solomon. But,
subsequently, all these events became emblems and
figures, after the things which they typified were
accomplished.

It is perfectly clear, from Ezekiel, Hosea, Jere-
miah, and all the Jewish prophets, and all the Jewish
books, as well as from all other books which give us
any Information concerning the usages of the Chal-

222 Philosophical

dseans, Persians, Phoenicians, Syrians, Indians, and
Egyptians; it is, I say, perfectly clear that their
manners were very different from ours, and that the
ancient world was scarcely in a single point similar
to the modern one.

Pass from Gibraltar to Mequinez, and the de-
cencies and decorums of life are no longer the same ;
you no longer find the same ideas. Two sea leagues
have changed everything.

ENCHANTMENT.

MAGIC, CONJURATION, SORCERY, ETC.

It is not in the smallest degree probable that all
those abominable absurdities are owing, as Pluche
would have us believe, to the foliage with which the
heads of Isis and Osiris were formerly crowned.
What connection can this foliage have with the art
of charming serpents, with that of resuscitating the
dead, killing men by mere words, inspiring persons
with love, or changing men into beasts ?

Enchantment {incantatio) comes, say some, from
a Chaldee word, which the Greeks translate "pro-
ductive song." Incantatio comes from the Chaldee.
Truly, the Bocharts are great travellers and proceed
from Italy to Mesopotamia in a twinkling! The
great and learned Hebrew nation is rapidly ex-
plored, and all sorts of books, and all sorts of
usages, are the fruits of the journey; the Bocharts
are certainly not charlatans.

Is not a large portion of the absurd supersti-

Dictionary. 223

tions which have prevailed to be ascribed to very
natural causes ? There are scarcely any animals that
may not be accustomed to approach at the sound of
a bagpipe, or a single horn, to take their food.
Orpheus, or some one of his predecessors, played
the bagpipe better than other shepherds, or em-
ployed singing. All the domestic animals flocked
together at the sound of his voice. It was soon sup-
posed that bears and tigers were among the number
collected ; this first step accomplished, there was no
difficulty in believing that Orpheus made stones and
trees dance.

If rocks and pine-trees can be thus made to dance
a ballet, it will cost little more to build cities by
harmony, and the stones will easily arrange them-
selves at Amphion's song. A violin only will be
wanted to build a city, and a ram's horn to de-
stroy it.

The charming of serpents may be attributed to a
still more plausible cause. The serpent is neither a
voracious nor a ferocious animal. Every reptile is
timid. The first thing a reptile does, at least in
Europe, on seeing a man, is to hide itself in a hole,
like a rabbit or a lizard. The instinct of a man is
to pursue everything that flies from him, and to
fly from all that pursue him, except when he is
armed, when he feels his strength, and, above all,
when he is in the presence of many observers.

The serpent, far from being greedy of blood and
flesh, feeds only upon herbs, and passes a consider-

224 Philosophical

able time without eating at all ; if he swallows a few
insects, as lizards and chameleons do, he does us a
service.

All travellers relate that there are some very large
and long ones ; although we know of none such in
Europe. No man or child was ever attacked there
by a large serpent or a small one. Animals attack
only what they want to eat ; and dogs never bite
passengers but in defence of their masters. What
could a serpent do with a little infant? What
pleasure could it derive from biting it? It could
not swallow even the fingers. Serpents do certainly
bite, and squirrels also, but only when they are in-
jured, or are fearful of being so.

I am not unwilling to believe that there have been
monsters among serpents as well as among men. I
will admit that the army of Regulus was put under
arms in Africa against a dragon ; and that there has
since been a Norman there who fought against the
waterspout. But it will be granted, on the other
hand, that such cases are exceedingly rare.

The two serpents that came from Tenedos for
the express purpose of devouring Laocoon, and two
great lads twenty years of age, in the presence of the
whole Trojan army, form a very fine prodigy, and
one worthy of being transmitted to posterity by
hexameter verses, and by statues which represent
Laocoon like a giant, and his stout boys as pygmies.

I conceive this event to have happened in those
times when a prodigious wooden horse took cities

Dictionary, 225

which had been buih by the gods, when rivers
flowed backward to their fountains, when waters
were changed to blood, and both sun and moon stood
still on the slightest possible occasion.

Everything that has been related about serpents
was considered probable in countries in which
Apollo came down from heaven to slay the serpent
Python.

Serpents were also supposed to be exceedingly
sensible animals. Their sense consists in not run-
ning so fast as we do, and in suffering themselves
to be cut in pieces.

The bite of serpents, and particularly of vipers, is
not dangerous, except when irritation has produced
the fermentation of a small reservoir of very acid
humor which they have under their gums. With
this exception, a serpent is no more dangerous than
an eel.

IMany ladies have tamed and fed serpents, placed
them on their toilets, and wreathed them about their
arms. The negroes of Guinea worship a serpent
which never injures any one.

There are many species of those reptiles, and
some are more dangerous than others in hot coun-
tries ; but in general, serpents are timid and mild
animals ; it is not uncommon to see them sucking
the udder of a cow.

Those who first saw men more daring than them-
selves domesticate and feed serpents, inducing them

to come to them bv a hissing sound in a similar way
Vol. 8- -IS

226 Philosophical

to that by which we induce the approach of bees,
considered them as possessing the power of enchant-
ment. The Psilli and Marsse, who famiharly han-
dled and fondled serpents, had a similar reputation.
The apothecaries of Poitou, who take up vipers by
the tail, might also, if they chose, be respected as
magicians of the first order.

The charming of serpents was considered as a
thing regular and constant. The Sacred Scripture
itself, which always enters into our weaknesses,
deigned to conform itself to this vulgar idea.

"The deaf adder, which shuts its ears that it may
not hear the voice of the charmer."

'T will send among you serpents which will resist
enchantments."

"The slanderer is like the serpent, which yields
not to the enchanter."

The enchantment was sometimes so powerful as
to make serpents burst asunder. The natural phi-
losophy of antiquity made this animal immortal. If
any rustic found a dead serpent in his road, some en-
chanter must inevitably have deprived it of its right
to immortality :

Frigidiis in pratis caniando rionpitiir anguis.

— ViRG. Eclogue viii. 71.
Verse breaks the ground, and penetrates the brake,
And in the winding cavern splits the snake.

— Dryden.

Enchantment of the Dead, or Evocation.
To enchant a dead person, to resuscitate him, or
barely to evoke his shade to speak to him, was the

Dictionary. 227

most simple thing in the world. It is very common
to see the dead in dreams, in which they are spoken
to and return answers. If any one has seen them
during sleep, why may he not see them when he is
awake? It is only necessary to have a spirit like
the pythoness ; and, to bring this spirit of python-
ism into successful operation it is only necessary
that one party should be a knave and the other a
fool ; and no one can deny that such rencontres very
frequently occur.

The evocation of the dead was one of the sub-
limest mysteries of magic. Sometimes there was
made to pass before the eyes of the inquiring
devotee a large, black figure, moved by secret springs
in dimness and obscurity. Sometimes the per-
formers, whether sorcerers or witches, limited them-
selves to declaring that they saw the shade which
was desired to be evoked, and their word was suffi-
cient ; this was called necromancy. The famous
witch of Endor has always been a subject of great
dispute among the fathers of the Church. The sage
Theodoret, in his sixty-second question on the
Book of Kings, asserts that it is universally the
practice for the dead to appear with the head down-
wards, and that what terrified the witch was Sam-
uel's being upon his legs.

St. Augustine, when interrogated by Simplicion,
replies, in the second book of his "Questions," that
there is nothing more extraordinary in a witch's in-
voking a shade than in the devil's transporting

22 8 Philosophical

Jesus Christ through the air to the pinnacle of the
temple on the top of a mountain.

Some learned men, observing that there were
oracular spirits among the Jews, have ventured to
conclude that the Jews began to write only at a late
period, and that they built almost everything upon
Greek fable ; but this opinion cannot be maintained.

Of Other Sorceries.

When a man is sufficiently expert to evoke the
dead by words, he may yet more easily destroy the
living, or at least threaten them with doing so, as
the physician, trial gre liii, told Lucas that he would
give him a fever. At all events, it was not in the
slightest degree doubtful that sorcerers had the
power of killing beasts ; and, to insure the stock of
cattle, it was necessary to oppose sorcery to sorcery.
But the ancients can with little propriety be laughed
at by us, who are ourselves scarcely even yet extri-
cated from the same barbarism. A hundred years
have not yet expired since sorcerers were burned all
over Europe; and even as recently as 1750, a sor-
ceress, or witch, was burned at Wiirzburg. It is
unquestionable that certain words and ceremonies
will effectually destroy a flock of sheep, if admin-
istered with a sufficient portion of arsenic.

The "Critical History of Superstitious Cere-
monies," by Lebrun of the Oratory, is a singular
work. His object is to oppose the ridiculous doc-
trine of witchcraft, and yet he is himself so ridic-

Dictionary. 229

ulous as to believe in its reality. He pretends that
Mary Bucaille, the witch, while in prison at Va-
lognes, appeared at some leagues distance, according
to the evidence given on oath to the judge of Va-
lognes. He relates the famous prosecution of the
shepherds of Brie, condemned in 169 1, by the Par-
liament of Paris, to be hanged and burned. These
shepherds had been fools enough to think themselves
sorcerers, and villains enough to mix real poisons
with their imaginary sorceries.

Father Lebrun solemnly asserts that there was
much of what was "supernatural" in what they did,
and that they were hanged in consequence. The
sentence of the parliament is in direct opposition
to this author's statement. "The court declares the
accused duly attainted and convicted of supersti-
tions, impieties, sacrileges, profanations, and poison-
ings."

The sentence does not state that the death of the
cattle was caused by profanations, but by poison. A
man may commit sacrilege without as well as with
poison, without being a sorcerer.

Other Judges, I acknowledge, sentenced the
priest Ganfredi to be burned, in the firm belief that,
by the influence of the devil, he had an illicit com-
merce with all his female penitents. Ganfredi him-
self imagined that he was under that influence ; but
that was in 161 1, a period when the majority of our
provincial population was very little raised above
the Caribs and negroes. Some of this description

230 Philosophical

have existed even in our own times ; as, for example,
the Jesuit Girard. the ex-Jesuit Xonnotte, the Jesuit
Duplessis, and the ex-Jesuit Malagrida; but this
race of imbeciles is daily hastening to extinction.

With respect to lycanthropy, that is, the trans-
formation of men into wolves by the power of en-
chantment, we may observe that a young shepherd's
having killed a wolf, and clothed himself with its
skin, was enough to excite the terror of all the old
women of the district, and to spread throughout the
province, and thence through other provinces, the
notion of a man's having been changed into a wolf.
Some A'irgil will soon be found to say:

His ego scEpe lupum fieri, et se condere si/vis
Moernffi scspe afii?nas i/nis exire sepulchris.

Smeared with these powerful juices on the plain.

He howls a wolf among the hungry train,

And oft the mighty necromancer boasts

With these to call from tombs the stalking ghosts.

— Urydex.

To see a man-wolf must certainly be a great
curiosity ; but to see human souls must be more
curious still ; and did not the monks of Monte
Cassino see the soul of the holy Benedict, or Bennet ?
Did not the monks of Tours see St. Martin's? and
the monks of St. Denis that of Charles ^lartel ?

Enchantments to Kindle Love.

These were for the young. They were vended
by the Jews at Rome and Alexandria, and are at the
present day sold in Asia. You will find some of
these secrets in the ''Petit Albert" ; and will become

Dictionary. 23 1

further initiated by reading the pleading composed
by Apuleius on his being accused by a Christian,
whose daughter he had married, of having be-
witched her by philtres. Emilian, his father-in-law,
alleged that he had made use of certain fishes, since,
Venus having been born of the sea, fishes must
necessarily have prodigious influence in exciting
women to love.

What was generally made use of consisted of
vervain, tenia, and hippomanes ; or a small portion
of the secundine of a mare that had just foaled, to-
gether with a little bird called wagtail ; in Latin
motacilla.

But Apuleius was chiefly accused of having em-
ployed shell-fish, lobster patties, she-hedgehogs,
spiced oysters, and cuttle-fish, which was celebrated
for its productiveness.

Apuleius clearly explains the real philtre, or
charm, which had excited Pudentilla's affection for
him. He undoubtedly admits, in his defence, that
his wife had called him a magician. "But what,"
says he, "if she had called me a consul, would that
have made me one?"

The plant satyrion was considered both among
the Greeks and Romans as the most powerful of
philtres. It was called planto aphrodisia, the plant
of Venus. That called by the Latins ernca is now
often added to the former. — Et venerem revocans
eriica morantem.

A little essence of amber is frequently used. Man-

232 Philosophical

dragora has gone out of fashion. Some exhausted
debauchees have employed cantharides, which
strongly affect the susceptible parts of the frame,
and often produce severe and painful consequences.
Youth and health are the only genuine philtres.
Chocolate was for a long time in great celebrity
with our debilitated pctits-maitrcs. But a man may
take twenty cups of chocolate without inspiring any
attachment to his person. — ■" .... itt amoris am-
abilis csto." (Ovid, A. A. ii., 107.) — "Wouldst
thou be loved^ be amiable."

END OF THE WORLD,

The greater part of the Greek philosophers held
the universe to be eternal both with respect to com-
mencement and duration. But as to this petty por-
tion of the world or universe, this globe of stone
and earth and water, of minerals and vapors, which
we inhabit, it was somewhat difficult to form an
opinion ; it was, however, deemed \&ry destructible.
It was even said that it had been destroyed more
than once, and would be destroyed again. Every
one judged of the whole world from his own par-
ticular country, as an old woman judges of all man-
kind from those in her own nook and neighborhood.

This idea of the end of our little world and its
renovation strongly possessed the imagination of the
nations under subjection to the Roman Empire,
amidst the horrors of the civil wars between Caesar

Dictionary. 233

and Pompey. Virgil, in his "Georgics" (i., 468),
alludes to the general apprehension which filled the
minds of the common people from, this cause :
"Impiaque eternam timueriint secula noctem." —
"And impious men now dread eternal night."

Lucan, in the following lines, expresses himself
much more explicitly :

Hos Ccesar populos, si nunc non usserit ignis
Uret cum terris, uret cu?n gurgite ponti.
Communis mundo superest rogtis ....

— Phars. vii. V. 812, 14.

Though now thy cruelty denies a grave,

These and the world one common lot shall have;

One last appointed flame, by fate's decree,

Shall waste yon azure heavens, the earth, and sea.

— RowE.

And Ovid, following up the observations of
Lucan, says :

Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur affore te^npus,
Quo mare, quo tellus, correptaque res^ia cceli.
Ardent et mundi 7)ioles operosa laboret.

—Met, i, v. 256, 58.

For thus the stern, unyielding fates decree,
That earth, air, heaven, with the capacious sea,
All shall fall victims to consuming fire.
And in fierce flames the blazing world expire.

Consult Cicero himself, the philosophic Cicero.
He tells us, in his book concerning the "Nature of
the Gods," the best work perhaps of all antiquity,
unless we make an exception in favor of his treatise
on human duties, called "The Offices"; in that book,
I say, he remarks :

"Rx quo eventiiniin nostri putant id, de quo Pan-
cctium addubifare dicebant; ut ad extremum omnis

234 Philosophical

miindus ignosceret, cum, humore consumpto, neque
terra all posset, neque remearet, aer cujus ortus,
aqua omni exhausta, esse non posset; ita relinqui
nihil prceter ignem, a quo rursiim animante ac Deo
renovatio mundi Heret; atque idem ornatus orire-
tur."

"According to the Stoics, the whole world will
eventually consist only of fire ; the water being then
exhausted, will leave no nourishment for the earth ;
and the air, which derives its existence from water,
can of course no longer be supplied. Thus fire
alone will remain, and this fire, reanimating every-
thing with, as it were, god-like power and energy,
will restore the world with improved beauty."

This natural philosophy of the Stoics, like that
indeed of all antiquity, is not a little absurd ; it
shows, however, that the expectation of a general
conflagration was universal.

Prepare, however, for greater astonishment than
the errors of antiquity can excite. The great New-
ton held the same opinion as Cicero, Deceived by
an incorrect experiment of Boyle, he thought that
the moisture of the globe would at length be dried
up, and that it would be necessary for God to apply
His reforming hand "manum emendatricem." Thus
we have the two greatest men of ancient Rome and
modern England precisely of the same opinion, that
at some future period fire will completely prevail
over water.

This idea of a perishing and subsequently to be

Dictionary. 2^^

renewed world was deeply rooted in the minds of
the inhabitants of Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt,
from the time of the civil wars of the successors of
Alexander. Those of the Romans augmented the
terror, upon this subject, of the various nations
which became the victims of them. They expected
the destruction of the world and hoped for a new
one. The Jews, who are slaves in Syria and scat-
tered through every other land, partook of this uni-
versal terror.

Accordingly, it does not appear that the Jews
were at all astonished when Jesus said to them, ac-
cording to St. Matthew and St. Luke: "Heaven
and earth shall pass away." He often said to them :
"The kingdom of God is at hand." He preached the
gospel of the kingdom of God.

St. Peter announces that the gospel was preached
to them that were dead, and that the end of the
w'orld drew near. "We expect," says he, ' new
heavens and a new earth."

St. John, in his first Epistle, says: "There are
at present many antichrists, which shows that the
last hour draws near."

St. Luke, in much greater detail, predicts the end
of the world and the last judgment. These are his
words :

"There shall be signs in the moon and in the
stars, roarings of the sea and the waves ; men's
hearts failing them for fear shall look with trem-
blinf to the events about to happen. The powers

236 Philosophical

of heaven shall be shaken ; and then shall they see.
the Son of Man coming in a cloud, with great power
and majesty. Verily I say unto you, the present
generation shall not pass away till all this be ful-
filled."

We do not dissemble that unbelievers upbraid us
with this very prediction; they want to make us
blush for our faith, when we consider that the
world is still in existence. The generation, they
say, is passed away, and yet nothing at all of this is
fulfilled. Luke, therefore, ascribes language to our
Saviour which he never uttered, or we must con-
clude that Jesus Christ Himself was mistaken, which
would be blasphemy. But we close the mouth of
these impious cavillers by observing that this predic-
tion, which appears so false in its literal meaning,
is true in its spirit ; that the whole world meant
Judaea, and that the end of the world signified the
reign of Titus and his successors.

St. Paul expresses himself very strongly on the
subject of the end of the world in his Epistle to the
Thessalonians : "We who survive, and who now
address you, shall be taken up into the clouds to
meet the Lord in the air."

According to these very words of Jesus and St.
Paul, the whole world was to have an end under
Tiberius, or at latest under Nero. St. Paul's pre-
diction was fulfilled no more than St. Luke's.

These allegorical predictions were undoubtedly
not meant to apply to the times of the evangelists

Dictionary. 237

and apostles, but to some future time, which God

conceals from all mankind.

Tn ne quaesieris {scire nefas) qiiem mihi, guem tibi

Fineni Dii dederint, Leticonoe, nee Babylonios
Tentaris mcmeros. Ut ineliiis, qtdcquid erit, pati!

— Horace i. ode xi.
Strive not; Leuconoe, to pry
Into the secret will of fate,
Nor impious magic vainly try
To know our lives' uncertain date.
— Francis.

It is still perfectly certain that all nations then
known entertained the expectation of the end of the
world, of a new earth and a new heaven. For more
tlian sixteen centuries we see that donations to
monkish institutions have commenced with these
words : '' Advent ante inundi vespere," etc. — "The
end of the world being at hand, I, for the good of
my soul, and to avoid being one of the number of
the goats on the left hand .... leave such and
such lands to such a convent." Fear influenced the
weak to enrich the cunning.

The Egyptians fixed this grand epoch at the end
of thirty-six thousand five hundred years ; Orpheus
is stated to have fixed it at the distance of a hundred
and twenty thousand years.

The historian Flavins Josephus asserts that
Adam, having predicted that the world would be
twice destroyed, once by water and next by fire,
the children of Seth were desirous of announcing
to the future race of men the disastrous catastrophe.
They engraved astronomical observations on two
columns, one made of bricks, which should resist

23 8 Philosophical

ihe fire that was to consume the world; the other
of stones, whicli would remain tminjured by the
water that was to drown it. But what tliought the
Romans, when a few slaves talked to them about an
Adam and a Seth unknown to all the world besides ?
They smiled. Josephus adds that the column of
stones was to be seen in his own time in Syria.

From all tliat has been said, we may conclude
that we know exceedingly little of past events — that
we are but ill acquainted with those present — that
we know nothing at all about the future — and that
we ought to refer everything relating to them to
God, the master of those three divisions of time and
of etemit)-.

ENTHUSIASM.

This Greek word signifies "emotion of the
bowels, internal agitation." Was the word invented
b}' the Greeks to express the vibrations experienced
by the nerves, the dilation and shrinking of the in-
testines, the violent contractions of the heart, the
precipitous course of those fiery spirits which mount
from the viscera to the brain whenever we are
strongly and vividly affected?

Or was the term "enthusiasm," after painful af-
fection of the bowels, first applied to the contortions
of the P)iJiia, who, on the Delphian tripod, admitted
the inspiration of Apollo in a place apparently in-
tended for the receptacle of body rather than of
spirit?

Dictionary. 239

What do we understand by enthusiasm? How
many shades are there in our affections ! Appro-
bation, sensibihty, emotion, distress, impulse, pas-
sion, transport, insanity, rage, fury. Such are the
stages through which the miserable soul of man is
liable to pass.

A geometrician attends at the representation of
an affecting tragedy. He merely remarks that it is
a judicious, well-written performance. A young
man who sits next to him is so interested by the per-
formance that he makes no remark at all ; a lady
sheds tears over it ; another young man is so trans-
ported by the exhibition that to his great misfortune
he goes home determined to compose a tragedy him-
self. He has caught the disease of enthusiasm.

The centurion or military tribune who considers
war simply as a profession by which he is to make
his fortune, goes to battle coolly, like a tiler ascend-
ing the roof of a house. Csesar wept at seeing the
statue of Alexander.

Ovid speaks of love only like one who understood
it. Sappho expressed the genuine enthusiasm of the
passion, and if it be true that she sacrificed her life
to it, her enthusiasm must have advanced to mad-
ness.

The spirit of party tends astonishingly to excite
enthusiasm ; there is no faction that has not its
"energumcns!' its devoted and possessed partisans.
An animated speaker who employs gesture in his
addresses, has in his eves, his voice, his movements.

240 Philosophical

a subtle poison which passes with an arrow's speed
into the ears and hearts of his partial hearers. It
was on this ground that Queen Elizabeth forbade
any one to preach, during six months, without an
express licence under her sign manual, that the
peace of her kingdom might be undisturbed.

St. Ignatius, who possessed very warm and sus-
ceptible feelings, read the lives of the fathers of
the desert after being deeply read in romances. He
becomes, in consequence, actuated by a double en-
thusiasm. He constitutes himself knight to the Vir-
gin Mary, he performed the vigil of arms ; he is
eager to fight for his lady patroness ; he is favored
with visions ; the virgin appears and recommends to
him her son, and she enjoins him to give no other
name to his society than that of the "Society of
Jesus."

Ignatius communicates his enthusiasm to another
Spaniard of the name of Xavier. Xavier hastens
away to the Indies, of the language of which he is
utterly ignorant, thence to Japan, without knowing
a word of Japanese. That, however, is of no con-
sequence ; the flame of his enthusiasm catches the
imagination of some young Jesuits, who, at length,
make themselves masters of that language. These
disciples, after Xavier's death, entertain not the
shadow of a doubt that he performed more miracles
than ever the apostles did, and that he resuscitated
seven or eight persons at the very least. In short,
so epidemic and powerful becomes the enthusiasm

Dictionary. 241

that they form in Japan what they denominate a
Christendom (luie Chretiente). This Christendom
ends in a civil war, in which a hundred thousand
persons are slaughtered : the enthusiasm then is at
its highest point, fanaticism ; and fanaticism has be-
come madness.

The young fakir who fixes his eye on the tip
of his nose when saying his prayers, gradually kin-
dles in devotional ardor until he at length believes
that if he burdens himself with chains of fifty
pounds weight the Supreme Being will be obliged
and grateful to him. He goes to sleep with an im-
agination totally absorbed by Brahma, and is sure to
have a sight of him in a dream. Occasionally even
in the intermediate state between sleeping and wak-
ing, sparks radiate from his eyes ; he beholds Brah-
ma resplendent with light ; he falls into ecstasies,
and the disease frequently becomes incurable.

What is most rarely to be met with is the com-
bination of reason with enthusiasm. Reason con-
sists in constantly perceiving things as they really
are. He, who, under the influence of intoxication,
sees objects double is at the time deprived of reason.

Enthusiasm is precisely like wine, it has the
power to excite such a ferment in the blood-vessels,
and such strong vibrations in the nerves, that reason
is completely destroyed by it. But it may also oc-
casion only slight agitations so as not to convulse
the brain, but merely to render it more active, as is

the case in grand bursts of eloquence and more
Vol. 8~i6

242 Philosophical

especially in sublime poetry. Reasonable enthusiasm
is the patrimony of great poets.

This reasonable enthusiasm is the perfection of
their art. It is this which formerly occasioned the
belief that poets were inspired by the gods, a notion
which was never applied to other artists.

How is reasoning to control enthusiasm ? A poet
should, in the first instance, make a sketch of his
design. Reason then holds the crayon. But when
he is desirous of animating his characters, to com-
municate to them the different and just expressions
of the passions, then his imagination kindles, enthu-
siasm is in full operation and urges him on like a
fiery courser in his career. But his course has been
previously traced with coolness and judgment.

Enthusiasm is admissible into every species of
poetry which admits of sentiment ; we occasionally
find it even in the eclogue ; witness the following-
lines of Virgil (Eclogue x. v. 58) :

Jam mihi per rupes videor lucosque sonantes
Ire; libet Partho torquere cydonia cormi
Spicula ; ianquani haec sint nostri niedicina fiiroris,
Aut deus ille iiialis hommum riiitescere discat!

Nor cold shall hinder me, with horns and hounds

To thrid the thickets, or to leap the mounds.

And now, methinks, through steepy rocks I go,

And rush through sounding woods and bend the Parthian

bow:
As if with sports my sufferings I could ease.
Or by my pains the god of Love appease.

The style of epistles and satires represses enthu-
siasm, we accordingly see little or nothing of it in
the works of Boileau and Pope.

Dictionary. 243

Our odes, it is said by some, are genuine lyrical
enthusiasm, but as they are not sung with us, they
are, in fact, rather collections of verses, adorned with
ingenious reflections, than odes.

Of all modern odes that which abounds with the
noblest enthusiasm, an enthusiasm that never abates,
that never falls into the bombastic or the ridiculous,
is "Timotheus, or Alexander's Feast," by Dryden.
It is still considered in England as an inimitable
masterpiece, which Pope, when attempting the same
style and the same subject, could not even approach.
This ode was sung, set to music, and if the musician
had been worthy of the poet it would have been the
masterpiece of lyric poesy.

The most dangerous tendency of enthusiasm in

this occurs in an ode on the birth of a prince of the

bast, rant, and burlesque. A striking example of

this occurs in an ode on the birth of a prince of the

blood royal :

Ou suis-je? quel nouveau miracle
Tient encore mes sens enchantes
Quel vaste, quel pompeux spectacle
Frappe mes yeux ^pouvant/s ?
U7t nouveau monde vient d'iclore
L'univers se reforme encore
Dans les abhnes du chaos ;
Et, pour reparer ses ruines
Je vois des demeures divines
Descendre un peuple de heros.

— J, B. Rousseau.
"Ode on the Birth of the Duke of Brittany."

Here we find the poet's senses enchanted and
alarmed at the appearance of a prodigy — a vast and
magnificent spectacle — a new birth which is to re-

244 Philosophical

form the universe and redeem it from a state of
chaos, all which means simply that a male child is
born to the house of Bourbon. This is as bad as
"Je cJiante les vainqueurs, des vainqueurs de la
terre."

We will avail ourselves of the present opportu-
nity to observe that there is a very small portion
of enthusiasm in the "Ode on the Taking of Na-
mur."

ENVY.

We all know what the ancients said of this dis-
graceful passion and what the moderns have re-
peated. Hesiod is the first classic author who has
spoken of it.

"The potter envies the potter, the artisan the
artisan, the poor even the poor, the musician the
musician — or, if any one chooses to give a different
meaning to the word avidos — the poet the poet."

Long before Hesiod, Job had remarked, "Envy
destroys the little-minded."

I believe Mandeville, the author of the "Fable of
the Bees," is the first who has endeavored to prove
that envy is a good thing, a very useful passion.
His first reason is that envy was as natural to man
as hunger and thirst ; that it may be observed in all
children, as well as in horses and dogs. If you wish
your children to hate one another, caress one more
than the other ; the prescription is infallible.

He asserts that the first thing two young women

Dictionary. 245

do when they meet together is to discover matter for
ridicule, and the second to flatter each other.

He thinks that without envy the arts would be
only moderately cultivated, and that Raphael would
never have been a great painter if he had not been
jealous of Michael Angelo.

Mandeville, perhaps, mistook emulation for envy ;
perhaps, also, emulation is nothing but envy re-
stricted within the bounds of decency.

Michael Angelo might say to Raphael, your envy
has only induced you to study and execute still bet-
ter than I do; you have not depreciated me, you
have not caballed against me before the pope, you
have not endeavored to get me excommunicated for
placing in my picture of the Last Judgment one-eyed
and lame persons in paradise, and pampered cardi-
nals with beautiful women perfectly naked in hell !
No ! your envy is a laudable feeling ; you are brave
as well as envious ; let us be good friends.

But if the envious person is an unhappy being
without talents, jealous of merit as the poor are of
the rich ; if under the pressure at once of indigence
and baseness he writes "News from Parnassus,"
"Letters from a Celebrated Countess," or "Literary
Annals," the creature displays an envy which is in
fact absolutely good for nothing, and for which even
Mandeville could make no apology.

Descartes said : "Envy forces up the yellow bile
from the lower part of the liver, and the black bile
that comes from the spleen, which diffuses itself

246 Philosophical

from the heart by the arteries." But as no sort of
bile is formed in the spleen, Descartes, when he
spoke thus, deserved not to be envied for his physi-
ology.

A person of the name of Poet or Poetius, a theo-
logical blackguard, who accused Descartes of athe-
ism, was exceedingly affected by the black bile. But
he knew still less than Descartes how his detestable
bile circulated through his blood.

Madame Pernelle is perfectly right : "Les en-
z'ieux moiirront, mais non jamais I'envie." — The en-
vious will die, but envy never. {"Tartuife/' Act V,
Scene 3.)

That it is better to excite envy than pity is a good
proverb. Let us, then, make men envy us as much
as we are able.

EPIC POETRY.

Since the word "epos," among the Greeks, signi-
fied a discourse, an epic poem must have been a dis-
course, and it was in verse because it was not then
the custom to write in prose. This appears strange,
but it is no less true. One Pherecydes is supposed
to have been the first Greek who made exclusive use
of prose to compose one of those half-true, half-
false histories so common to antiquity.

Orpheus, Linus, Thamyris, and Musseus, the
predecessors of Homer, wrote in verse only. Hesiod,
v.'ho was certainly contemporary with Homer, wrote
his "Theogony" and his poem of "Works and Days"

Dictionary. 247

entirely in verse. The harmony of the Greek lan-
guage so invited men to poetry, a maxim turned into
verse was so easily engraved on the memory that the
laws, oracles, morals, and theology were all com-
posed in verse.

Of Hesiod.

He made use of fables which had for a long time
been received in Greece. It is clearly seen by the
succinct manner in which he speaks of Prometheus
and Epimetheus that he supposes these notions al-
ready familiar to all the Greeks. He only mentions
them to show that it is necessary to labor, and that
an indolent repose, in which other mythologists have
made the felicity of man to consist, is a violation of
the orders of the Supreme Being.

Hesiod afterwards describes the four famous
ages, of which he is the first who has spoken, at
least among the ancient authors who remain to us.
The first age is that which preceded Pandora — the
time in Vvhich men lived with the gods. The iron
age is that of the siege of Thebes and Troy. 'T live
in the fifth," says he, "and I would I had never been
born." How many men, oppressed by envy, fanati-
cism, and tyranny, since Hesiod, have said the same !

It is in this poem of "Works and Days" that those
proverbs are found which have been perpetuated, as
— "the potter is jealous of the potter," and he adds,
"the musician of the musician, and the poor even of
the poor." We there find the original of our fable

248 Philosophical

of the nightingale fallen into the claws of the vul-
ture. The nightingale sings in vain to soften him ;
the vulture devours her. Hesiod does not conclude
that a hungry belly has no ears, but that tyrants are
not to be mollified by genius.

A hundred maxims worthy of Xenophon and
Cato are to be found in this poem.

Men are ignorant of the advantage of society :
they know not that the half is more valuable than
the whole.

Iniquity is pernicious only to the powerless.

Equity alone causes cities to flourish.

One unjust man is often sufficient to ruin his
country.

The wretch who plots the destruction of his
neighbor often prepares the way to his own.

The road to crime is short and easy. That of
virtue is long and difficult, but towards the end it is
delightful.

God has placed labor as a sentinel over virtue.

Lastly, the precepts on agriculture were worthy
to be imitated by Virgil. There are, also, very fine
passages in his "Theogony." Love, who disentan-
gles chaos ; Venus, born of the sea from the genital
parts of a god nourished on earth, always followed
by Love, and uniting heaven, earth, and sea, are ad-
mirable emblems.

Why, then, has Hesiod had less reputation than
Homer? They seem to me of equal merit, but
Homer has been preferred by the Greek? because he

Dictionary. 249

sang their exploits and victories over the Asiatics,
their eternal enemies. He celebrated all the families
which in his time reigned in Achaia and Peloponne-
sus ; he wrote the most memorable war of the first
people in Europe against the most flourishing nation
which was then known in Asia. His poem was al-
most the only monument of that great epoch. There
was no town nor family which did not think itself
honored by having its name mentioned in these rec-
ords of valor. We are even assured that a long
time after him some differences between the Greek
towns on the subject of adjacent lands were decided
by the verses of Homer. He became, after his death,
the judge of cities in which it is pretended that he
asked alms during his life, which proves, also, that
the Greeks had poets long before they had geog-
raphers.

It is astonishing that the Greeks, so disposed to
honor epic poems which immortalized the combats
of their ancestors, produced no one to sing the bat-
tles of Marathon, Thermopylae, Platsea, and Sala-
mis. The heroes of these times were much greater
men than Agamemnon, Achilles, and Ajax.

Tyrtaeus, a captain, poet, and musician, like the
king of Prussia in our days, made war and sang it.
He animated the Spartans against the Messenians
by his verses, and gained the victory. But his works
are lost. It does not appear that any epic poem was
written in the time of Pericles. The attention of
genius was turned towards tragedy, so that Homer

250 Philosophical

stood alone, and his glory increased daily. We now
come to his "Iliad."

Of the Iliad.

What confirms me in the opinion that Homer was
of the Greek colony established at Smyrna is the ori-
ental style of all his metaphors and pictures : The
earth which shook under the feet of the army when
it marched like the thunderbolts of Jupiter on the
hills which overwhelmed the giant Typhon ; a wind
blacker than night winged with tempests ; Mars and
]\Iinerva followed by Terror, Flight, and insatiable
Discord, the sister and companion of Homicide, the
goddess of battles, who raises tumults wherever she
appears, and who, not content with setting the world
by the ears, even exalts her proud head into heaven.
The "Iliad" is full of these images, which caused the
sculptor Bouchardon to say, "When I read Homer
I believe myself twenty feet high."

His poem, which is not at all interesting to us,
was very precious to the Greeks. His gods are
ridiculous to reasonable but they were not so to par-
tial eyes, and it was for partial eyes that he wrote.

We laugh and shrug our shoulders at these
gods, who abused one another, fought one another,
and combated with men — who were wounded and
whose blood flowed, but such was the ancient theol-
ogy of Greece and of almost all the Asiatic people.
Every nation, every little village had its particular
god, which conducted it to battle.

Dictionary, 251

The inhabitants of the clouds and of the stars
which were supposed in the clouds, had a cruel war.
The combat of the angels against one another was
from time immemorial the foundation of the religion
of the Brahmins. The battle of the Titans, the chil-
dren of heaven and earth, against the chief gods of
Olympus, was also the leading mystery of the Greek
religion. Typhon, according to the Egyptians, had
fought against Oshiret, whom we call Osiris, and
cut him to pieces.

Madame Dacier, in her preface to the "Iliad," re-
marks very sensibly, after Eustathius, bishop of
Thessalonica, and Huet, bishop of Avranches, that
every neighboring nation of the Hebrews had its god
of war. Indeed, does not Jephthah say to the Am-
monites, "Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh
thy god giveth thee to possess? So, whomsoever
the Lord our God shall drive out from before us,
from them will we possess."

Do we not see the God of Judah a conqueror
in the mountains and repulsed in the valleys?

As to men wrestling against divinities, that is a
received idea. Jacob wrestled one whole night with
an angel. If Jupiter sent a deceiving dream to the
chief of the Greeks, the Lord also sent a deceiving
spirit to King Ahab. These emblems were frequent
and astonished nobody. Homer has then painted
the ideas of his own age ; he could not paint those
of the generations which succeeded him.

Homer has great faults. Horace confesses it,

'J. ^2 Philosophical

and all men of taste agree to it ; there is only one
commentator who is blind enough not to see them.
Pope, who was himself a translator of the Greek
poet, says: "It is a vast but uncultivated country
where we meet with all kinds of natural beauties,
but which do not present themselves as regularly
as in a garden; it is an abundant nursery which
contains the seeds of all fruits ; a great tree that ex-
tends superfluous branches which it is necessary to
prune."

Madame Dacier sides with the vast country, the
nursery and the tree, and would have nothing cur-
tailed. She was no doubt a woman superior to her
sex, and has done great service to letters, as well as
her husband, but when she became masculine and
turned commentator, she so overacted her part that
she piqued people into finding fault with Homer.
She was so obstinate as to quarrel even with Mon-
sieur de La Motte. She wrote against him like the
head of a college, and La Motte answered like a po-
lite and witty woman. He translated the "Iliad"
very badly, but he attacked Madame Dacier very
well.

We will not speak of the "Odyssey" here; we
shall say something of that poem while treating of
Ariosto.

Of Virgil.

It appears to me that the second, fourth, and
sixth book of the "'^neid" are as much above all
Greek and Latin poets, without exception, as the

Dictionary. 2^2

statues of Girardon are superior to all those which

preceded them in France.

It is often said that Virgil has borrowed many of

the figures of Homer, and that he is even inferior to

him in his imitations, but he has not imitated him

at all in the three books of which I am speaking;

he is there himself touching and appalling to the

heart. Perhaps he was not suited for terrific detail.

but there had been battles enough. Horace had said

of him, before he attempted the "^neid :"

Molle atque facetum
Virgilio annuertmt gaudentes rure camoence.

Smooth flow his lines, and elegant his style,
On Virgil all the rural muses smile.

— Francis.

"Facetum" does not here signify facetious but
agreeable. I do not know whether we shall not find
a little of this happy and affecting softness in the
fatal passion of Dido. I think at least that we shall
there recognize the author of those admirable verses
which we meet with in his Eclogues : "Ut vldi, ut
fter'n, ut me mahis absttdit error!" — I saw, I per-
ished, yet indulged my pain. — (Dryden.)

Certainly the description of the descent into hell

would not be badly matched with these lines from

the fourth Eclogue :

Tile Deum vitam accipiet, divisque videbit
Permistos heroas, et ipse videbitur illis —
Pacatu7nq2ie reget patriis virtutibiis orbeni.

The sons shall lead the lives of gods, and be
By gods and heroes seen, and gods and heroes see.
The jarring nations he in peace shallbind,
And with paternal virtues rule mankind.

— Dryden.

^254 Philosophical

I meet with many of these simple, elegant, and
affecting passages in the three beautiful books of the
"^neid."

All the fourth book is filled with touching verses,
which move those who have any ear or sentiment at
all, even to tears, and to point out all the beauties of
this book it would be necessary to transcribe the
whole of it. And in the sombre picture of hell, how
this noble and affecting tenderness breathes through
every line.

It is well known how many tears were shed by the
emperor Augustus, by Livia, and all the palace, at
hearing this half line alone: "Tn Marcellus eris."
— A new Marcellus will in thee arise.

Homer never produces tears. The true poet, ac-
cording to my idea, is he who touches the soul and
softens it, others are only fine speakers. I am far
from proposing this opinion as a rule. "I give my
opinion," says Montaigne, "not as being good, but as
being my own."

Of Lucan.

If you look for unity of time and action in Lu-
can you will lose your labor, but where else will
you find it? If you expect to feel any emotion or
any interest you will not experience it in the long
details of a war, the subject of which is very dry
and the expressions bombastic, but if you would
have bold ideas, an eloquent expatiation on subHme
and philosophical courage, Lucan is the only one

Dictionary. 255

among the ancients in whom you will meet with it.

There is nothing finer than the speech of Labienus

to Cato at the gates of the temple of Jupiter Am-

mon, if we except the answer of Cato itself :

Hceremus ctcncti superis ? iemploque tacente

Nil facimus non sp07ite Dei

.... Steriles num legit arenas.

Ut caneret paucis; mersii ne hoc pulvere veruni!

Estiie Dei sedes nisi terra et pontus et aer,

Et ccelu7n et virtus? Siiperos quid qucsriinus ultra?

Jupiter est qiiodcumque vides quocumqxte jnoveris.

And though our priests are mutes, and temples still,
We act the dictates of his mighty will;
Canst thou believe, the vast eternal mind,
Was e'er to Syrts and Libyan sands confined?
That he would choose this waste, this barren ground,
To teach the thin inhabitants around?
Is there a place that God would choose to love
Beyond this earth, the seas, yon heaven above,
And virtuous minds, the noblest throne of Jove?
Why seek we farther, then? Behold around;
How all thou seest doth with the God abound,
Jove is seen everywhere, and always to be found.

— RowE.

Put together all that the ancients poets have said

of the gods and it is childish in comparison with

this passage of Lucan, but in a vast picture, in which

there are a hundred figures, it is not sufficient that

one or two of them are finely designed.

Of Tasso.

Boileau has exposed the tinsel of Tasso, but if
there be a hundred spangles of false gold in a piece
of gold cloth, it is pardonable. There are many
rough stones in the great marble building raised by
Homer. Boileau knew it, felt it, and said nothing
about it. We should be just.

2^6 Philosophical

We recall the reader's memory to what has been
said of Tasso in the "Essay on Epic Poetry," but
we must here observe that his verses are known by
heart all over Italy. If at Venice any one in a boat
sings a stanza of the "Jerusalem Delivered," he is
answered from a neighboring bark with the follow-
ing one.

If Boileau had listened to these concerts he could
have said nothing in reply. As enough is known of
Tasso, I will not repeat here either eulogies or criti-
cisms. I will speak more at length of Ariosto.

Of Ariosto.

Homer's "Odyssey" seems to have been the first
model of the "Morgante," of the "Orlando Inna-
morato," and the "Orlando Furioso," and, what very
seldom happens, the last of the poems is without dis-
pute the best.

The companions of Ulysses changed into swine ;
the winds shut up in goats' skins ; the musicians
with fishes' tails, who ate all those who approached
them ; Ulysses, who follov.'ed the chariot of a beau-
tiful princess who went to bathe quite naked ; Ulys-
ses, disguised as a beggar, who asked alms, and
afterwards killed all the lovers of his aged wife,
assisted only by his son and two servants — are imag-
inations which have given birth to all the poetical
romances which have since been written in the same
style.

But the romance of Ariosto is so full of variety

Dictionary. 257

and so fertile in beauties of all kinds that after hav-
ing read it once quite through I only wish to begin
it again. How great the charm of natural poetry!
I never could read a single canto of this poem in a
prose translation.

That which above all charms me in this wonder-
ful work is that the author is always above his sub-
ject, and treats it playfully. He says the most sub-
lime things without effort and he often finishes them
by a turn of pleasantry which is neither misplaced
nor far-fetched. It is at once the "Ihad," the
"Odyssey," and "Don Quixote," for his principal
knight-errant becomes mad like the Spanish hero,
and is infinitely more pleasant.

The subject of the poem, which consists of so
many things, is precisely that of the romance of
"Cassandra," which was formerly so much in fash-
ion with us, and which has entirely lost its celebrity
because it had only the length of the "Orlando Ftt-
rioso," and few of its beauties, and even the
few being in French prose, five or six stanzas of
Ariosto will eclipse them all. His poem closes with
the greater part of the heroes and princesses who
have not perished during the war all meeting in
Paris, after a thousand adventures, just as the per-
sonages in the romance of "Cassandra" all finally
meet again in the house of Palemon.

The "Orlando Furioso" possesses a merit un-
known to the ancients — it is that of its exordiums.

Every canto is like an enchanted palace, the vesti-
Vol. 8—17

258 Philosophical

bule of which is ahvays in a different taste — some-
times majestic, sometimes simple, and even gro-
tesque. It is moral, lively, or gallant, and always
natural and true.

EPIPHANY.

The Manifestation, the Appearance, the Illustration,
the Radiance.

It is not easy to perceive what relation this word
can have to the three kings or magi, who came from
the east under the guidance of a star. That bril-
liant star was evidently the cause of bestowing on
the day of its appearance the denomination of the
Epiphany.

It is asked whence came these three kings ? What
place had they appointed for their rendezvous ? One
of them, it is said, came from Africa ; he did not,
then, come from the East. It is said they were three
magi, but the common people have always preferred
the interpretation of three kings. The feast of the
kings is everywhere celebrated, but that of the magi
nowhere ; people eat king's-cake and not magi-cake,
and exclaim "the king drinks" — not "the magi
drink."

Moreover, as they brought with them much gold,
incense, and myrrh, they must necessarily have been
persons of great wealth and consequence. The magi
of that day were by no means very rich. It was not
then as in the times of the false Smerdis.

Tertullian is the first who asserted that these

Dictionary. 259

three travellers were kings. St. Ambrose, and St.
Caesar of Aries, suppose them to be kings, and the
following passages of Psalm Ixxi. are quoted in
proof of it : ''The kings of Tarshish and of the
isles shall offer him gifts. The kings of Arabia and
of Saba shall bring him presents." Some have called
these three kings Magalat, Galgalat, and Saraim,
others Athos, Satos, and Paratoras. The Catholics
knew them under the names of Gaspard, Melchior,
and Balthazar. Bishop Osorio relates that it was a
king of Cranganore, in the kingdom of Calicut, who
undertook this journey with two magi, and that this
king on his return to his own country built a chapel
to the Holy Virgin.

It has been inquired how much gold they gave
Joseph and Mary. Many commentators declare that
they made them the richest presents ; they built on
the authority of the "Gospel of the Infancy," which
states that Joseph and Mary were robbed in Egypt
by Titus and Dumachus, "but," say they, "these
men would never have robbed them if they had not
had a great deal of money." These two robbers
were afterwards hanged ; one was the good thief
and the other the bad one. But the "Gospel of
Nicodemus" gives them other names ; it calls them
Dimas and Gestas.

The same "Gospel of the Infancy" says that they
were magi and not kings who came to Bethlehem ;
that they had in reality been guided by a star, but
that the star having ceased to appear while they were

i6o Philosophical

in the stable, an angel made its appearance in the
form of a star to act in its stead. This gospel as-
serts that the visit of the three magi had been pre-
dicted by Zerdusht, whom we call Zoroaster.

Suarez has investigated what became of the gold
which the three kings or magi presented; he main-
tains that the amount must have been very large, and
that three kings could never make a small or mod-
erate present. He says that the whole sum was af-
terwards given to Judas, who, acting as stcAvard,
turned out a rogue and stole the whole amount.

All these puerilities can do no harm to the Feast
of the Epiphany, which was first instituted by the
Greek Church, as the term implies, and was after-
wards celebrated by the Latin Church.

EQUALITY.

Nothing can be clearer than that men, enjoying
the faculties of their common nature, are in a state
of equality ; they are equal when they perform their
animal functions, and exercise their understandings.
The king of China, the great mogul, or the Turkish
pasha cannot say to the lowest of his species, "I
forbid you to digest your food, to discharge your
faeces, or to think." All animals of every species
are on an equality with one another, and animals
have by nature beyond ourselves the advantages of
independence. If a bull, while paying his attentions
to a heifer, is driven away by the horns of another
bull stronger than himself, he goes to seek a new

Dictionary. ;6i

mistress in another meadow, and lives in freedom.
A cock, after being defeated, finds consolation in
another hen-roost. It is not so with us. A petty
ii^zier banishes a bostan^ to Lemnos : the -vizier
Azem banishes the petty vizier to Tenedos; the
pasha banishes the vizier .\zem to Rhodes : the
janissaries imprison the pasha and elect another
who will banish the worthy Mussulmans just when
and where he pleases, while they will feel inexpres-
sibly obliged to him for so gentle a display of his
authority.

If the earth were in fact what it might be sup-
posed it should be — if men found upon it every-
where an easy and certain subsistence, and a climate
congenial to their nature, it would be evidently im-
possible for one man to subjugate another. Let the
globe be covered with wholesome fruits ; let the
air on which we depend for life convey to us no dis-
eases and premature death ; let man require no othe\
lodging than the deer or roebuck, in that case the
Genghis Khans and Tamerlanes will have no other
attendants than their own children, who will be very
worthy persons, and assist them affectionately in
their old age.

In that state of nature enjoyed by all undomes-
ticated quadrupeds, and by birds and reptiles, men
would be just as happy as they are. Domination
would be a mere chimera — an absurdity which no
one would think of, for why should servants be
sought for when no service is required?

262 Philosophical

If it should enter the mind of any individual of
a tyrannical disposition and nervous arm to subju-
gate his less powerful neighbor, his success would be
impossible ; the oppressed would be on the Danube
before the oppressor had completed his preparations
on the Volga.

All men, then, would necessarily have been equal
had they been without wants ; it is the misery at-
tached to our species which places one man in sub-
jection to another; inequality is not the real griev-
ance, but dependence. It is of little consequence
for one man to be called his highness and another his
holiness, but it is hard for me to be the servant of
another.

A numerous family has cultivated a good soil,
two small neighboring families live on lands unpro-
ductive and barren. It will therefore be necessary
for the two poor families to serve the rich one, or to
destroy it. This is easily accomplished. One of the
two indigent families goes and offers its services to
the rich one in exchange for bread, the other makes
an attack upon it and is conquered. The serving
family is the origin of domestics and laborers, the
one conquered is the origin of slaves.

It is impossible in our melancholy world to pre-
vent men living in society from being divided into
two classes, one of the rich who command, the other
of the poor who obey, and these two are subdivided
into various others, which have also their respective
shades of difference.

Dictionary. 263

You come and say, after the lots are drawn, I
am a man as well as you ; I have two hands and
two feet ; as much pride as yourself, or more ; a
mind as irregular, inconsequent, and contradictory
as your own. I am a citizen of San Marino, or Ra-
gusa, or Vaugirard ; give me my portion of land.
In our known hemisphere are about fifty thousand
millions of acres of cultivable land, good and bad.
The number of our two-footed, featherless race
within these bounds is a thousand millions ; that is
just fifty acres for each : do me justice ; give me my
fifty acres.

The reply is : go and take them among the Kaffirs,
the Hottentots, and the Samoyeds ; arrange the mat-
ter amicably with them ; here all the shares are filled
up. If you wish to have food, clothing, lodging,
and warmth among us, work for us as your father
did — serve us or amuse us, and you shall be paid ; if
not, you will be obliged to turn beggar, which would
be highly degrading to your sublime nature, and
certainly preclude that actual equality with kings,
or even village curates, to which you so nobly pre-
tend.

All the poor are not unhappy. The greater num-
ber are born in that state, and constant labor pre-
vents them from too sensibly feeling their situation ;
but when they do strongly feel it, then follow wars
such as those of the popular party against the senate
at Rome, and those of the peasantry in Germany,
England, and France. All these wars ended sooner

264 Philosophical

or later in the subjection of the people, because the
great have money, and money in a state commands
everything; I say in a state, for the case is different
between nation and nation. That nation which
makes the best use of iron will always subjugate an-
other that has more gold but less courage.

Every man is born with an eager inchnation for
power, wealth, and pleasure, and also with a great
taste for indolence. Every man, consequently,
would wish to possess the fortunes and the wives or
daughters of others, to be their master, to retain
them in subjection to his caprices, and to do nothing,
or at least nothing but what is perfectly agreeable.
You clearly perceive that with such amiable dispo-
sitions, it is as impossible for men to be equal as for
two preachers or divinity professors not to be jeal-
ous of each other.

The human race, constituted as it is, cannot exist
unless there be an infinite number of useful individ-
uals possessed of no property at all, for most cer-
tainly a man in easy circumstances will not leave his
own land to come and cultivate yours ; and if you
want a pair of shoes you will not get a lawyer to
make them for you. Equality, then, is at the same
time the most natural and the most chimerical thing
possible.

As men carry everything to excess if they have it
in their power to do so, this inequality has been
pushed too far; it has been maintained in many
countries that no citizen has a right to quit that in

Dictionary. 265

wMch he was born. The meaning of such a law
must evidently be : "This country is so wretched
and ill-governed w^e prohibit every man from quit-
ting it, under an apprehension that otherwise all
would leave it." Do better; excite in all your sub-
jects a desire to stay with you, and in foreigners a
desire to come and settle among you.

Every man has a right to entertain a private opin-
ion of his own equality to other men, but it follows
not that a cardinal's cook should take it upon him
to order his master to prepare his dinner. The cook,
however, may say : 'T am a man as well as my mas-
ter ; I was born like him in tears, and shall like him
die in anguish, attended by the same common cere-
monies. We both perform the same animal func-
tions. If the Turks get possession of Rome, and I
then become a cardinal and my master a cook, I will
take him into my service." This language is per-
fectly reasonable and just, but, while waiting for
the Grand Turk to get possession of Rome, the cook
is bound to do his duty, or all human society is sub-
verted.

With respect to a man who is neither a cardinal's
cook nor invested with any office whatever in the
state — with respect to an individual who has no con-
nections, and is disgusted at being everywhere re-
ceived with an air of protection or contempt, who
sees quite clearly that many men of quality and title
have not more knowledge, wit, or virtue than him-
self, and is wearied by being occasionally in their

266 Philosophical

antechambers — what ought such a man to do? He
ought to stay away.

ESSENIANS.

The more superstitious and barbarous any na-
tion is, the more obstinately bent on war, notwith-
standing its defeats ; the more divided into factions,
floating between royal and priestly claims ; and the
more intoxicated it may be by fanaticism, the more
certainly will be found among that nation a number
of citizens associated together in order to live in
peace.

It happens during a season of pestilence that a
small canton forbids all communication wdth large
cities. It preserves itself from the prevailing con-
tagion, but remains a prey to other maladies.

Of this description of persons were the Gymnos-
ophists in India, and certain sects of philosophers
among the Greeks. Such also were the Pythago-
reans in Italy and Greece, and the Therapeutae in
Egypt. Such at the present day are those primitive
people called Quakers and Dunkards, in Pennsylva-
nia, and very nearly such were the first Christians
who lived together remote from cities.

Not one of these societies w^as acquainted with the
dreadful custom of binding themselves by oath to
the mode of life which they adopted, of involving
themselves in perpetual chains, of depriving them-
selves, on a principle of religion, of the grand right

Dictionary. 267

and first principle of human nature, which is liberty ;
in short, of entering into what we call vows. St.
Basil was the first who conceived the idea of those
vows, of this oath of slavery. He introduced a new
plague into the world, and converted into a poison
that which had been invented as a remedy.

There were in Syria societies precisely similar to
those of the Essenians. This we learn from the Jew
Philo, in his treatise on the "Freedom of the Good."
Syria was always superstitious and factious, and
always under the yoke of tyrants. The successors of
Alexander made it a theatre of horrors. It is by
no means extraordinary that among such numbers
of oppressed and persecuted beings, some, more hu-
mane and judicious than the rest, should withdraw
from all intercourse with great cities, in order to live
in common, in honest poverty, far from the blasting
eyes of tyranny.

During the civil wars of the latter Ptolemies,
similar asylums were formed in Egypt, and when
that country was subjugated by the Roman arms,
the Therapeutas established themselves in a seques-
tered spot in the neighborhood of Lake Moeris.

It appears highly probable that there were Greek,
Egyptian, and Jewish Therapeutse. Philo, after eu-
logizing Anaxagoras, Democritus, and other philos-
ophers, who embraced their way of life, thus ex-
presses himself :

"Similar societies are found in many countries ;
Greece and other regions enjoy institutions of this

a68 Philosophical

consoling character. They are common in Egypt
in every district, and particularly in that of Alexan-
dria. The most worthy and moral of the population
have withdrawn beyond Lake Moeris to a secluded
but convenient spot, forming a gentle declivity. The
air is very salubrious, and the villages in the neigh-
borhood sufficiently numerous," etc.

Thus we perceive that there have everywhere ex-
isted societies of men who have endeavored to find
a refuge from disturbances and factions, from the
insolence and rapacity of oppressors. All, without
exception, entertained a perfect horror of war, con-
sidering it precisely in the same light in which we
contemplate highway robbery and murder.

Such, nearly, were the men of letters who united
in France and founded the Academy. They quietly
withdrew from the factious and cruel scenes which
desolated the country in the reign of Louis XIIL
Such also were the men who founded the Royal So-
ciety at London, while the barbarous idiots called
Puritans and Episcopalians were cutting one an-
other's throats about the interpretation of a few
passages from three or four old and unintelligible
books.

Some learned men have been of opinion that Je-
sus Christ, who condescended to make his appear-
ance for some time in the small district of Caper-
naum, in Nazareth, and some other small towns of
Palestine, was one of those Essenians who fled from
the tumult of affairs and cultivated virtue in peace.

Dictionary. 269

But the name "Essenian," never even once occurs
in the four Gospels, in the Apocrypha, or in the
Acts, or the Epistles of the apostles.

Although, however, the name is not to be found,
a resemblance is in various points observable — con-
fraternity, community of property, strictness of
moral conduct, manual labor, detachment from
wealth and honors ; and, above all, detestation of
war. So great is this detestation, that Jesus Christ
commands his disciples when struck upon one cheek
to offer the other also, and when robbed of a cloak
to deliver up the coat likewise. Upon this principle
the Christians conducted themselves, during the two
first centuries, without altars, temples, or magistra-
cies— all employed in their respective trades or oc-
cupations, all leading secluded and quiet lives.

Their early writings attest that they were not
permitted to carry arms. In this they perfectly re-
sembled our Quakers, Anabaptists, and Mennonites
of the present day, who take a pride in following
the literal meaning of the gospel. For although
there are in the gospel many passages which, when
incorrectly understood, might breed violence — as the
case of the merchants scourged out of the temple
avenues, the phrase "compel them to come in," the
dangers into which they were thrown who had not
converted their master's one talent into five talents,
and the treatment of those who came to the wedding
without the wedding garment — although, I say, all
these may seem contrary to the pacific spirit of the

270 Philosophical

gospel, yet there are so many other passages which
enjoin sufferance instead of contest, that it is by no
means astonishing that, for a period of two hundred
years, Christians held war in absolute execration.

Upon this foundation was the numerous and re-
spectable society of Pennsylvanians established, as
were also the minor sects which have imitated them.
When I denominate them respectable, it is by no
means in consequence of their aversion to the splen-
dor of the Catholic church. I lament, undoubtedly,
as I ought to do, their errors. It is their virtue,
their modesty, and their spirit of peace, that I re-
spect.

Was not the great philosopher Bayle right, then,
when he remarked that a Christian of the earliest
times of our religion would be a very bad soldier,
or that a soldier would be a very bad Christian?

This dilemma appears to be unanswerable; and
in this point, in my opinion, consists the great dif-
ference between ancient Christianity and ancient
Judaism.

The law of the first Jews expressly says, "As
soon as you enter any country with a view to possess
it, destroy everything by fire and sword ; slay, with-
out mercy, aged men, women, and children at the
breast; kill even all the animals; sack everything
and burn everything. It is your God who com-
mands you so to do." This injunction is not given
in a single instance, but on twenty different occa-
sions, and is always followed.

Dictionary. 271

Mahomet, persecuted by the people of Mecca, de-
fends himself like a brave man. He compels his
vanquished persecutors to humble themselves at his
feet, and become his disciples. He establishes his
religion by proselytism and the sword.

Jesus, appearing between the times of Moses and
Mahomet, in a corner of Galilee, preaches forgive-
ness of injuries, patience, mildness, and forbearance,
dies himself under the infliction of capital punish-
ment, and is desirous of the same fate for His first
disciples.

I ask candidly, whether St. Bartholomew, St.
Andrew, St. Matthew, and St. Barnabas, would
have been received among the cuirassiers of the em-
peror, or among the royal guards of Charles XH.?

Would St. Peter himself, though he cut of? Mal-
chus' ear, have made a good officer? Perhaps St.
Paul, accustomed at first to carnage, and having had
the misfortune to be a bloody persecutor, is the only
one who could have been made a warrior. The im-
petuosity of his temperament and the fire of his
imagination would have made him a formidable
commander. But, notwithstanding these qualities,
he made no effort to revenge himself on Gamaliel by
arms. He did not act like the Judases, the Theu-
dases, and the Barchochebases, who levied troops :
he followed the precepts of Jesus Christ ; he suf-
fered ; and, according to an account we have of his
death, he was beheaded.

To compose an army of Christians, therefore, in

272 Philosophical

the early period of Christianity, was a contradiction
in terms.

It is certain that Christians were not enlisted
among the troops of the empire till the spirit by
which they were animated was changed. In the
first two centuries they entertained a horror for
temples, altars, tapers, incense, and lustral water.
Porphyry compares them to the foxes who said "the
grapes are sour." "If," said he, "you could have
had beautiful temples burnished with gold, and
large revenues for a clergy, you would then have
been passionately fond of temples." They after-
wards addicted themselves to all that they had ab-
horred. Thus, having detested the profession of
arms, they at length engaged in war. The Chris-
tians in the time of Diocletian were as different from
those of the time of the apostles, as we are from the
Christians of the third century.

I cannot conceive how a mind so enlightened and
bold as Montesquieu's could severely censure an-
other genius much more accurate than his own, and
oppose the following just remark made by Bayle :
"a society of real Christians might live happily to-
gether, but they would make a bad defence on being
attacked by an enemy."

"They would," says Montesquieu, "be citizens in-
finitely enlightened on the subject of their duties,
and ardently zealous to discharge them. They
would be fully sensible of the rights of natural de-
fence. The more they thought they owed religion.

Dictionary. 273

the more they would thmk they owed their country.
The principles of Christianity deeply engraved on
their hearts would be infinitely more powerful than
the false honor of monarchies, the human virtues of
republics, or the servile fear which operates under
despotism."

Surely the author of the "Spirit of Laws" did not
reflect upon the words of the gospel, when saying
that real Christians would be fully sensible of the
rights of natural defence. He did not recollect the
command to deliver up the coat after the cloak had
been taken ; and, after having received a blow upon
one cheek, to present the other also. Here the prin-
ciple of natural defence is most decidedly annihi-
lated. Those whom we call Quakers have always
refused to fight; but in the war of 1756, if they had
not received assistance from the other English, and
suffered that assistance to operate, they would have
been completely crushed.

Is it not unquestionable that men who thought
and felt as martyrs would fight very ill as grena-
diers? Every sentence of that chapter of the "Spirit
of Laws" appears to me false. "The principles of
Christianity deeply engraved on their hearts, would
be infinitely more powerful," etc. Yes, more power-
ful to prevent their exercise of the sword, to make
them tremble at shedding their neighbor's blood, to
make them look on life as a burden of which it
would be their highest happiness to be relieved.

"If," says Bayle, "they were appointed to drive
Vol. 8—18

274 Philosophical

back veteran corps of infantry, or to charge regi-
ments of cuirassiers, they would be seen Hke sheep
in the midst of wolves."

Bayle was perfectly right. Montesquieu did not
perceive that, while attempting to refute him, he
contemplated only the mercenary and sanguinary
soldiers of the present day, and not the early Chris-
tians. It would seem as if he had been desirous of
preventing the unjust accusations which he experi-
enced from the fanatics, by sacrificing Bayle to
them. But he gained nothing by it. They are two
great men, who appear to be of different opinions,
but who, if they had been equally free to speak,
would have been found to have the same,

"The false honor of monarchies, the human vir-
tues of republics, the servile fear which operates
under despotism ;" nothing at all of this goes to-
wards the composition of a soldier, as the "Spirit of
Laws" pretends. When we levy a regiment, of
whom a quarter part will desert in the course of a
fortnight, not one of the men enlisted thinks about
the honor of the monarchy : they do not even know
what it is. The mercenary troops of the republic of
Venice know their country; but nothing about re-
publican virtue, which no one ever speaks of in the
place of St. Mark. In one word, I do not believe
that there is a single man on the face of the earth
who has enlisted in his regiment from a principle of
virtue.

Neither, again, is it out of a servile fear that

Dictionary. 275

Turks and Russians fight with the fierceness and
rage of lions and tigers. Fear does not inspire cour-
age. Nor is it by devotion that the Russians have
defeated the armies of Mustapha. It would, in my
opinion, have been highly desirable that so ingenious
a man should have sought for truth rather than dis-
play. When we wish to instruct mankind, we ought
to forget ourselves, and have nothing in view but
truth.

ETERNITY.

In my youth I admired all the reasonings of
Samuel Clarke. I loved his person, although he was
a determined Arian as well as Newton, and I still re-
vere his memory, because he was a good man ; but
the impression which his ideas had stamped on my
yet tender brain was effaced when that brain be-
came more firm. I found, for example, that he had
contested the eternity of the world with as little
ability as he had proved the reality of infinite space.

I have so much respect for the Book of Gene-
sis, and for the church which adopts it, that I re-
gard it as the only proof of the creation of the world
five thousand seven hundred and eighteen years ago,
according to the computation of the Latins, and
seven thousand and seventy-eight years, according
to the Greeks. All antiquity believed matter, at
least, to be eternal ; and the greatest philosophers
attributed eternity also to the arrangement of the
universe.

276 Philosophical

They are all mistaken, as we well know ; but we
may believe, without blasphemy, that the eternal
Former of all things made other worlds besides ours.

EUCHARIST.

On this delicate subject, we shall not speak as
theologians. Submitting in heart and mind to the
religion in which we are born, and the laws under
which we live, we shall have nothing to do with
controversy; it is too hostile to all religions which
it boasts of supporting — to all laws which it makes
pretensions to explain, and especially to that har-
mony which in every period it has banished from
the world.

One-half of Europe anathematizes the other on
the subject of the Eucharist ; and blood has flowed
in torrents from the Baltic Sea to the foot of the
Pyrenees, for nearly two centuries, on account of a
single word, which signifies gentle charity.

Various nations in this part of the world view
with horror the system of transubstantiation. They
exclaim against this dogma as the last effort of hu-
man folly. They quote the celebrated passage of
Cicero, who says that men, having exhausted all the
mad extravagancies they are capable of, have yet
never entertained the idea of eating the God whom
they adore. They say that as almost all popular
opinions are built upon ambiguities and abuse of
words, so the system of the Roman Catholics con-
cerning the Eucharist and transubstantiation is

Dictionary. 277

founded solely on an ambiguity ; that they liave in-
terpreted literally what could only have been meant
figuratively; and that for the sake of mere verbal
contests, for absolute misconceptions, the world has
for six hundred years been drenched in blood.

Their preachers in the pulpits, their learned in
their publications, and the people in their conversa-
tional discussions, incessantly repeat that Jesus
Christ did not take His body in His two hands to
give His disciples to eat ; that a body cannot be in
a hundred thousand places at one time, in bread and
in wane ; that the God who formed the universe
cannot consist of bread which is converted into
fceces, and of wine which flows ofT in urine ; and
that the doctrine may naturally expose Christianity
to the derision of the least intelligent, and to the
contempt and execration of the rest of mankind.

In this opinion the Tillotsons, the Smallridges,
the Claudes, the Dailies, the Amyrauts, the Mes-
trezats, the Dumoulins, the Blondels, and the num-
berless multitude of the reformers of the sixteenth
century, are all agreed ; while the peaceable Ma-
hometan, master of Africa, and of the finest part of
Asia, smiles with disdain upon our disputes, and
the rest of the world are totally ignorant of them.

Once again I repeat that I have nothing to do
with controversy. I believe with a lively faith all
that the Catholic apostolic religion teaches on the
subject of the Eucharist, without comprehending a
single word of it.

278 Philosophical

The question is, how to put the greatest restraint
upon crimes. The Stoics said that they carried
God in their hearts. Such is the expression of Mar-
cus AureHus and Epictetus, the most virtuous of
mankind, and who might almost be called gods upon
earth. They understood by the w^ords "I carry God
within me," that part of the divine universal soul
which animates every intelligent being.

The Catholic religion goes further. It says, "You
shall have within you physically what the Stoics had
metaphysically. Do not set yourselves about inquir-
ing what it is that I give you to eat and drink, or
merely to eat. Only believe that what I so give you
is God. He is within you. Shall your heart then
be defiled by anything unjust or base? Behold then
men receiving God within them, in the midst of an
august ceremonial, by the light of a hundred tapers,
under the influence of the most exquisite and en-
chanting music, and at the footstool of an altar of
burnished gold. The imagination is led captive, the
soul is rapt in ecstasy and melted ! The votary
scarcely breathes; he is detached from every ter-
restrial object, he is united with God, He is in our
flesh, and in our blood ! Who will dare, or who
even will be able, after this, to commit a single
fault, or to entertain even the idea of it? It was
clearly impossible to devise a mystery better calcu-
lated to retain mankind in virtue."

Yet Louis XL, while receiving God thus within
him, poisons his own brother; the archbishop of

Dictionary. 279

Florence, while making God, and the Pazzi while
receiving Him, assassinate the Medici in the cathe-
dral. Pope Alexander VI., after rising from the
bed of his bastard daughter, administers God to
Caesar Borgia, his bastard son, and both destroy by
hanging, poison, and the sword, all who are in pos-
session of two acres of land which they find desir-
able.

Julius II. makes and eats God; but, with his
cuirass on his back and his helmet on his head, he
imbrues his hands in blood and carnage. Leo X.
contains God in his body, his mistress in his arms,
and the money extorted by the sale of indulgences,
in his own and his sister's coffers.

Trolle, archbishop of Upsala, has the senators of
Sweden slaughtered before his face, holding a papal
bull in his hand. Von Galen, bishop of Miinster,
makes war upon all his neighbors, and becomes cele-
brated for his rapine.

The Abbe N is full of God, speaks of noth-
ing but God, imparts God to all the women, or weak
and imbecile persons that he can obtain the direction
of, and robs his penitents of their property.

What are we to conclude from these contradic-
tions? That all these persons never really believed
in God ; that they still less, if possible, believed that
they had eaten His body and drunk His blood ; that
they never imagined they had swallowed God ; that
if they had firmly so believed, they never would have
committed any of those deliberate crimes; in a

28o Philosophical

word, that this most miraculous preventive of hu-
man atrocities has been most ineffective ? The more
sublime such an idea, the more decidedly is it se-
cretly rejected by human obstinacy.

The fact is, that all our grand criminals who have
been at the head of government, and those also who
have subordinately shared in authority, not only
never believed that they received God down their
throats, but never believed in God at all ; at least
tfiey had entirely effaced such an idea from their
minds. Their contempt for the sacrament which
they created or administered was extended at length
into a contempt of God Himself. What resource,
then, have we remaining against depredation, inso-
lence, outrage, calumny, and persecution? That of
persuading the strong man who oppresses the weak
that God really exists. He will, at least, not laugh
at this opinion ; and, although he may not believe
that God is within him, he yet may believe that God
pervades all nature. An incomprehensible mystery
has shocked him. But would he be able to say that
the existence of a remunerating and avenging God
is an incomprehensible mystery? Finally^ although
he does not yield his belief to a Catholic bishop who
says to him, "Behold, that is your God, whom a man
consecrated by myself has put into your mouth ;"
he may believe the language of all the stars and of
all animated beings, at once exclaiming: "God is
our creator !"

Dictionary. 281

EXECUTION.

SECTION I.

Yes, we here repeat the observation, a man that
is hanged is good for nothing ; although some exe-
cutioner, as much addicted to quackery as cruelty,
may have persuaded the wretched simpletons in his
neighborhood that the fat of a person hanged is a
cure for the epilepsy.

Cardinal Richelieu, when going to Lyons to en-
joy the spectacle of the execution of Cinq-Mars
and de Thou, was informed that the executioner had
broken his leg. "What a dreadful thing it is," says
he to the chancellor Seguier, "we have no execu-
tioner!" I certainly admit that it must have been
a terrible disaster. It was a jewel wanting in his
crown. At last, however, an old worthy was found,
who, after twelve strokes of the sabre, brought low
the head of the innocent and philosophic de Thou.
What necessity required this death? What good
could be derived from the judicial assassination of
Marshal de Marillac?

I will go farther. If Maximilian, duke of Sully,
had not compelled that admirable King Henry IV.
to yield to the execution of Marshal Biron, who was
covered with wounds which had been received in
his service, perhaps Henry would never have suf-
fered assassination himself; perhaps that act of
clemency, judiciously interposed after condemna-
tion, would have soothed the still raging spirit of

282 Philosophical

the league ; perhaps the outcry would not then have
been incessantly thundered into the ears of the popu-
lace— the king always protects heretics, the king
treats good Catholics shamefully, the king is a
miser, the king is an old debauchee, who, at the age
of fifty-seven fell in love with the young princess of
Conde, and forced her husband to fly the kingdom
with her. All these embers of universal discontent
would probably not have been alone sufficient to in-
flame the brain of the fanatical Feuillant, Ravaillac.

With respect to what is ordinarily called justice,
that is, the practice of killing a man because he has
stolen a crown from his master ; or burning him,
as was the case with Simon Morin, for having said
that he had had conferences with the Holy Spirit ;
and as was the case also with a mad old Jesuit of the
name of Malagrida, for having printed certain con-
versations which the holy virgin held with St. Anne,
her mother, while in the womb — this practice, it
must be acknowledged, is neither conformable to hu-
manity or reason, and cannot possibly be of the least
utility.

We have already inquired what advantage could
ensue to the state from the execution of that poor
man known under the name of the madman ; who,
while at supper with some monks, uttered certain
nonsensical words, and who, instead of being purged
and bled, was delivered over to the gallows ?

We further ask, whether it was absolutely neces-
sary that another madman, who was in the body-

Dictionary. 283

guards, and who gave himself some sHght cuts with
a hanger, Hke many other impostors, to obtain re-
muneration, should be also hanged by the sentence
of the parliament ? Was this a crime of such great
enormity? Would there have been any imminent
danger to society in saving the life of this man?

What necessity could there be that La Barre
should have his hand chopped off and his tongue
cut out, that he should be put to the question ordi-
nary and extraordinary, and be burned alive ? Such
was the sentence pronounced by the Solons and Ly-
curguses of Abbeville! What had he done? Had
he assassinated his father and mother? Had people
reason to apprehend that he would burn down the
city ? He was accused of want of reverence in some
secret circumstances, which the sentence itself does
not specify. He had, it was said, sung an old song,
of which no one could give an account ; and had
seen a procession of capuchins pass at a distance
without saluting it.

It certainly appears as if some people took great
delight in what Boileau calls murdering their neigh-
bor in due form and ceremony, and inflicting on him
unutterable torments. These people live in the
forty-ninth degree of latitude, which is precisely the
position of the Iroquois. Let us hope that they may,
some time or other, become civilized.

Among this nation of barbarians, there are always
to be found two or three thousand persons of great
kindness and amiability, possessed of correct taste,

284 Philosophical

and constituting excellent society. These will, at
length, polish the others.

I should like to ask those who are so fond of
erecting gibbets, piles, and scaffolds, and pouring
leaden balls through the human brain, whether they
are always laboring under the horrors of famine,
and whether they kill their fellow-creatures from
any apprehension that there are more of them than
can be maintained ?

I was once perfectly horror-struck at seeing a
list of deserters made out for the short period merely
of eight years. They amounted to sixty thousand.
Here were sixty thousand co-patriots, who were to
be shot through the head at the beat of drum ; and
with whom, if well maintained and ably commanded,
a whole province might have been added to the king-
dom.

I would also ask some of these subaltern Dracos,
whether there are no such things wanted in their
country as highways or crossways, whether there
are no uncultivated lands to be broken up, and
whether men who are hanged or shot can be of any
service?

I will not address them on the score of humanity,
but of utility : unfortunately, they will often attend
to neither; and, although M. Beccaria met with the
applauses of Europe for having proved that punish-
ments ought only to be proportioned to crimes, the
Iroquois soon found out an advocate, paid by a
priest, who maintained that to torture, hang, rack,

Dictiona>-y. 285

and burn in all cases whatsoever, was decidedly the
best way.

SECTION II.

But it is England which, more than any other
country, has been distinguished for the stern de-
light of slaughtering men with the pretended sword
of the law. Without mentioning the immense num-
ber of princes of the blood, peers of the realm, and
eminent citizens, who have perished by a public
death on the scaffold, it is sufficient to call to mind
the execution of Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Cath-
erine Howard, Lady Jane Grey, Queen ]\Iar>' Stuart,
and King Charles I., in order to justify the sarcasm
which has been frequently applied, that the history
of England ought to be written by the executioner.

Next to that island, it is alleged that France is
the country in which capital punishments have been
most common. I shall say nothing of that of Queen
Brunehaut, for I do not believe it. I pass by in-
numerable scaffolds, and stop before that of Count
Montecuculi, who was cut into quarters in the pres-
ence of Francis I. and his whole court, because
Francis, the dauphin, had died of pleurisy.

That event occurred in 1536. Charles V., vic-
torious on all the coasts of Europe and Africa, was
then ravaging both Provence and Picardy. During
that campaign which commenced advantageously for
him, the young dauphin, eighteen years of age, be-
comes heated at a game of tennis, in the small city

286 Philosophical

of Tournon. When in high perspiration he drinks
iced water, and in the course of five days dies of the
pleurisy. The whole court and all France exclaim
that the Emperor Charles V. had caused the dau-
phin of France to be poisoned. This accusation,
equally horrible and absurd, has been repeated from
time to time down to the present. Malherbe, in one
of his odes, speaks of Francis, whom Castile, un-
equal to cope with in arms, bereaved of his son.

We will not stop to examine whether the em-
peror was unequal to the arms of Francis I., because
he left Provence after having completely sacked it,
nor whether to poison a dauphin is to steal him ; but
these bad lines decidedly show that the poisoning of
the dauphin Francis by Charles V. was received
throughout France as an indisputable truth.

Daniel does not exculpate the emperor. Renault,
in his "Chronological Summary," says: "Francis,
the dauphin, poisoned." It is thus that all writers
copy from one another. At length the author of the
"History of Francis I." ventures, like myself, to in-
vestigate the fact.

It is certain that Count Montecuculi, who was in
the service of the dauphin, was condemned by cer-
tain commissioners to be quartered, as guilty of hav-
ing poisoned that prince.

Historians say that this Montecuculi was his cup-
bearer. The dauphins have no such officer: but I
will admit that they had. How could that gentle-
man, just at the instant, have mixed up poison in a

Dictionary. 287

glass of fresh water ? Did he always carry poison in
his pocket, ready whenever his master might call for
drink? He was not the only person present witK
the dauphin, who was, it appears, wiped and rubbed
dry by some of his attendants after the game of ten-
nis was finished. The surgeons who opened the
body declared, it is said, that the prince had taken
arsenic. Had the prince done so, he must have felt
intolerable pains about his throat, the water would
have been colored, and the case would not have been
treated as one of pleurisy. The surgeons were ig-
norant pretenders, who said just what they were de-
sired to say ; a fact which happens every day.

What interest could this officer have in destroy-
ing his master? Who was more likely to advance
his fortune? But, it is said, it was intended also to
poison the king. Here is a new difficulty and a new
improbability.

Who was to compensate him for this double
crime? Charles V., it is replied — another improb-
ability equally strong. Why begin with a youth
only eighteen years and a half old, and who, more-
over, had two brothers? How was the king to be
got at? Montecuculi did not wait at his table.

Charles V. had nothing to gain by taking away
the life of the young dauphin, who had never drawn
a swoid, and who certainly would have had power-
ful avengers. It would have been a crime at once
base and useless. He did not fear the father, we
are to believe, the bravest knight of the French

288 Philosophical

court; yet he was afraid of the son, who had
scarcely reached beyond the age of childhood !

But, we are informed, this Montecuculi, on the
occasion of a journey to Ferrara, his own country,
was presented to the emperor, and that that mon-
arch asked him numerous questions relating to the
magnificence of the king's table and the economy of
his household. This certainly is decisive evidence
that the Italian was engaged by Charles V. to poison
the royal family 1

Oh ! but it was not the emperor himself who
urged him to commit this crime : he was impelled to
it by Anthony de Leva and the Marquis di Gon-
zaga. Yes, truly, Anthony de Leva, eighty years
of age, and one of the most virtuous knights in
Europe ! and this noble veteran, moreover, was in-
discreet enough to propose executing this scheme of
poisoning in conjunction with a prince of Gonzaga.
Others mention the Marquis del Vasto, whom we
call du Gast. Contemptible impostors! Be at
kast agreed among yourselves. You say that Mon-
tecuculi confessed the fact before his judges. Have
you seen the original documents connected with the
trial ?

You state that the unfortunate man was a chem-^
ist. These then are your only proofs, your onlr
reasons, for subjecting him to the most dreadful of
executions : he was an Italian, he was a chemist,
and Charles V. was hated. His glory then provoked
indeed a base revene:e. Good God! Your court

Dictionary. 289

orders a man of rank to be cut into quarters upon
bare suspicion, in the vain hope of disgracing that
powerful emperor.

Some time afterwards your suspicions, always
light and volatile, charge this poisoning upon Cath-
erine de Medici, wife of Henry II., then dauphin
and subsequently king of France. You say that, in
order to reign, she destroyed by poison the first dau-
phin, who stood between her husband and the
throne. Miserable impostors ! Once again, I say,
be consistent ! Catherine de Medici was at that
time only seventeen )'ears of age.

It has been said that Charles V. himself imputed
this murder to Catherine, and the historian Pera is
quoted to prove it. Thiy however, is an error.
These are the historian's words :

"This year the dauphin of France died at Paris
with decided indications of poison. His friends as-
cribed it to the orders of the Marquis del Vasto and
Anthony de Leva, which led to the execution of
Count Montecuculi, who was in the habit of corre-
sponding with them: base and absurd suspicion of
men so highly honorable, as by destroying the dau-
phin little or nothing could be gained. He was not
yet known by his valor any more than his brothers,
who were next in the succession to him.

"To one presumption succeeded another. It was
pretended that this murder was committed by order
of the duke of Orleans, his brother, at the instiga-
tion of his wife, Catherine de Medici, who was am-
Vol. 8—19

290 Philosophical

bitious of being a queen, which, in fact, she even-
tually was. It is well remarked by a certain author,
that the dreadful death of the duke of Orleans,
afterw^ards Henry II., was the punishment of
heaven upon him for poisoning his brother — at
least, if he really did poison him — a practice too
common among princes, by which they free them-
selves at little cost from stumbling-blocks in their
career, but frequently and manifestly punished by
God."

Signor di Pera, we instantly perceive, is not an
absolute Tacitus ; besides, he takes Montecuculi, or
Montecuculo, as he calls him, for a Frenchman, He
says the dauphin died at Paris, whereas it was at
Tournon. He speaks of decided indications of poi-
son from public rumor ; but it is clear that he attrib-
utes the accusation of Catherine de Medici only
to the French. This charge is equally unjust and
extravagant with that against Montecuculi.

In fact, this volatile temperament, so character-
istic of the French, has in every period of our his-
tory led to the most tragical catastrophes. If we go
back from the iniquitous execution of Montecuculi
to that of the Knights Templars, we shall see a series
of the most atrocious punishments, founded upon
the most frivolous presumptions. Rivers of blood
have flowed in France in consequence of the
thoughtless character and precipitate judgment of
the French people.

We may just notice the wretched pleasure that

Dictionary. 291

some men, and particularly those of weak minds,
secretly enjoy in talking or writing of public execu-
tions, like that they derive from the subject of
miracles and sorceries. In Calmet's "Dictionary of
the Bible" you may find a number of fine engravings
of the punishments in use among the Hebrews.
These prints are absolutely sufficient to strike every
person of feeling with horror. We will take this
opportunity to observe that neither the Jews nor
any other people ever thought of fixing persons to
the cross by nails ; and that there is not even a single
instance of it. It is the fiction of some painter, built
upon an opinion completely erroneous.

SECTION III.

Ye sages who are scattered over the world — for
some sages there are — join the philosophic Beccaria,
and proclaim with all your strength that punish-
ments ought to be proportioned to crimes :

That after shooting through the head a young
man of the age of twenty, who has spent six months
with his father and mother or his mistress, instead
of rejoining his regiment, he can no longer be of
any service to his country :

That if you hang on the public gallows the serv-
ant girl who stole a dozen napkins from her mis-
tress, she will be unable to add to the number of
your citizens a dozen children, whom you may be
considered as strangling in embryo with their par-
ent; that there is no proportion between a dozen

2g2 Philosophical

napkins and human life ; and, finally, that you really
encourage domestic theft, because no master will be
so cruel as to get his coachman hanged for stealing
a few of his oats ; but every master would prose-
cute to obtain the infliction of a punishment which
should be simply proportioned to the offence :

That all judges and legislators are guilty of the
death of all the children which unfortunate, seduced
women desert, expose, or even strangle, from a simi-
lar weakness to that which gave them birth.

On this subject I shall without scruple relate
what has just occurred in the capital of a wise and
powerful republic, which however, with all its wis-
dom, has unhappily retained some barbarous laws
from those old, unsocial, and inhuman ages, called
by some the ages of purity of manners. Near this
capital a new-born infant was found dead; a girl
was apprehended on suspicion of being the mother ;
she was shut up in a dungeon ; she was strictly in-
terrogated ; she replied that she could not have been
the mother of that child, as she was at the present
time pregnant. She was ordered to be visited by a
certain number of what are called (perfectly mal-
apropos in the present instance) wise women — by a
commission of matrons. These poor imbecile creat-
ures declared her not to be with child, and that the
appearance of pregnancy was occasioned by im-
proper retention. The unfortunate woman was
threatened with the torture; her mind became
alarmed and terrified; she confessed that she had

Dictionary. 293

killed her supposed child ; she was capitally con-
victed; and during the actual passing of her sen-
tence was seized with the pains of childbirth. Her
judges were taught by this most impressive case not
lightly to pass sentences of death.

With respect to the numberless executions which
weak fanatics have inflicted upon other fanatics
equally weak, I will say nothing more about them ;
although it is impossible to say too much.

There are scarcely any highway robberies com-
mitted in Italy without assassinations, because the
punishment of death is equally awarded to both
crimes.

It cannot be doubted that M. de Beccaria, in his
"Treatise on Crimes and Punishments" has noticed
this very important fact.

EXECUTIONER.

It may be thought that this word should not be
permitted to degrade a dictionary of arts and
sciences ; it has a connection however with juris-
prudence and history. Our great poets have not dis-
dained frequently to avail themselves of this word
in tragedy: Clytemnestra, in Iphigenia, calls Aga-
memnon the executioner of his daughter.

In comedy it is used with great gayety ; Mercury
in the "Amphitryon" (act i. scene 2), says : "Com-
ment, bonrreau! tic fais des crisl" — "How, hang-
man! thou bellowest!"

294 Philosophical

And even the Romans permitted themselves to
say : "Quorsum vadis, carnifexf" — "Whither goest
thou, hangman?"

The Encyclopaedia, under the word "Execu-
tioner," details all the privileges of the Parisian exe-
cutioner; but a recent author has gone farther. In
a romance on education, not altogether equal to
Xenophon's "Cyropsedia" or Fenelon's "Telema-
chus," he pretends that the monarch of a country
ought, without hesitation, to bestow the daughter of
an executioner in marriage on the heir apparent of
the crown, if she has been well educated, and if she
is of a sufficiently congruous disposition with the
young prince. It is a pity that he has not men-
tioned the precise sum she should carry with her as
a dower, and the honors that should be conferred
upon her father on the day of marriage.

It is scarcely possible, with due congruity, to
carry further the profound morality, the novel rules
of decorum, the exquisite paradoxes, and divine
maxims with which the author I speak of has fa-
vored and regaled the present age. He would un-
doubtedly feel the perfect congruity of officiating as
bridesman at the wedding. He would compose the
princess's epithalamium, and not fail to celebrate the
grand exploits of her father. The bride may then
possibly impart some acrid kisses ; for be it known
that this same writer, in another romance called
"Helo'ise," introduces a young Swiss, who had
caught a particular disorder in Paris, saying to his

Dictionary. 295

mistress, "Keep your kisses to yourself; they are
too acrid."

A time will come when it will scarcely be con-
ceived possible that such works should have obtained
a sort of celebrity ; had the celebrity continued, it
would have done no honor to the age. Fathers of
families soon made up their minds that it was not
exactly decorous to marry their eldest sons to the
daughters of executioners, whatever congruity
might appear to exist between the lover and the
lady. There is a rule in all things, and certain limxits
which cannot be rationally passed.

Est T/iodus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines,
Quos ultra citraque tiequit consistere rectum.

EXPIATION.

Dieufit du repentir la vertu des mortels.
The repentance of man is accepted by God as
virtue, and perhaps the finest institution of antiquity
was that solemn ceremony which repressed crimes
by announcing that they would be punished, and at
the same time soothed the despair of the guilty by
permitting them to redeem their transgressions by
appointed modes of penance. Remorse, it is to be
remembered, must necessarily have preceded expia-
tion, for diseases are older than medicine, and neces-
sities than relief.

There was, then, previously to all public and
legal forms of worship, a natural and instinctive re-
ligion which inflicted grief upon the heart of any

296 Philosophical

one who, through ignorance or passion, had com-
mitted an inhuman action. A man in a quarrel has
killed his friend, or his brother, or a jealous and
frantic lover has taken the life of her without whom
he felt as if it were impossible to live. The chief of
a nation has condemned to death a virtuous man and
useful citizen. Such men, if they retain their senses
and sensibility, become overwhelmed by despair.
Their consciences pursue and haunt them; two
courses only are open to them, reparation or to be-
come hardened in guilt. All who have the slightest
feeling remaining choose the former ; monsters
adopt the latter.

As soon as religion was established, expiations
were admitted. The ceremonies attending them
were, unquestionably, ridiculous; for what connec-
tion is there between the water of the Ganges and a
murder? How could a man repair homicide by
bathing? We have already commented on the ex-
cess of absurdity and insanity which can imagine
that what washes the body, washes the soul also,
and expunges from it the stain of evil actions.

The water of the Nile had afterwards the same
virtue as that of the Ganges ; other ceremonies were
added to these ablutions. The Egyptians took two
he-goats and drew lots which of the two should be
cast out loaded with the sins of the guilty. This
goat was called Hazazel, the expiator. What con-
nection is there, pray, between a goat and the crime
of a human being?

Dictionary. 297

It is certainly true that in after times this cere-
mony was sanctified among our fathers the Jews,
who adopted many of the Egyptian rites ; but the
souls of the Jews were undoubtedly purified, not by
the goat but by repentance.

Jason, having killed Absyrtus, his brother-in-law,
went, we are told, with Medea, who was more guilty
than himself, to be absolved by Circe, the queen and
priestess of ^a, who passed in those days for a
most powerful sorceress. Circe absolved them with
a sucking pig and salt cakes. This might possibly
be a very good dish, but it could neither compensate
for the blood of Absyrtus, nor make Jason and
Medea more worthy people, unless while eating
their pig they also manifested the sincerity of their
repentance.

The expiation of Orestes, who had avenged his
father by the murder of his mother, consisted in
going and stealing a statue from the Tartars of the
Crimea. The statue was probably extremely ill exe-
cuted, and there appeared nothing to be gained by
such an enterprise. In later times these things were
contrived better : mysteries were invented, and the
offenders might obtain absolution at these mysteries
by submitting to certain painful trials, and swearing
to lead a new life. It is from this oath that the per-
sons taking it had attached to them, among all na-
tions, a name corresponding to that of initiated "qui
ineunt vitam novam," — who begin a new career,
who enter upon the path of virtue.

298 Philosophical

We have seen under the article on "Baptism" that
the Christian catechumens were not called initiated
till after they had been baptized.

It is indisputable, that persons had not their sins
washed away in these mysteries, but by virtue of
their oath to become virtuous : the hierophant in all
the Grecian mysteries, when dismissing the assem-
bly, pronounced the two Egyptian words, "Koth,
ompheth," "watch, be pure" ; which at once proves
that the mysteries came originally from Egypt, and
that they were invented solely for the purpose of
making mankind better.

Wise men, we thus see, have, in every age, done
all in their power to inspire the love of virtue, and
to prevent the weakness of man from sinking under
despair ; but, at the same time there have existed
crimes of such magnitude and horror that no mys-
tery could admit of their expiation. Nero, al-
though an emperor, could not obtain initiation into
the mysteries of Ceres. Constantine, according to
the narra^^^ive of Zosimus, was unable to procure the
pardon of his crimes : he was polluted with the
blood of his wife, his son, and all his relations. It
was necessary, for the protection of the human race,
that crimes so flagitious should be deemed incapable
of expiation, that the prospect of absolution might
not invite to their committal, and that hideous atroc-
ity might be checked by universal horror.

The Roman Catholics have expiations which they
call penances. We have seen, under the article on

Dictionary. 299

"Austerities," how grossly so salutary an institution
has been abused.

According to the laws of the barbarians who sub-
verted the Roman Empire, crimes were expiated by
money. This was called compounding : "Let the
offender compound by paying ten, twenty, thirty
shillings." Two hundred sous constituted the com-
position price for killing a priest, and four hundred
for killing a bishop ; so that a bishop was worth ex-
actly two priests.

After having thus compounded with men, God
Himself was compounded with, w^hen the practice of
confession became generally established. At length
Pope John XXII. established a tariff of sins.

The absolution of incest, committed by a layman,
cost four livres tournois : "Ab incesfu pro laico in
foro conscienticT turonenses quatuor." For a man
and woman who have committed incest, eighteen
livres tournois, four ducats, and nine carlines. This
is certainly unjust ; if one person pays only four
livres tournois, two persons ought not to pay more
than eight.

Even crimes against nature have actually their
affixed rates, amounting to ninety livres tournois,
twelve ducats, and six carlines : "Cum inhihitione
turonenses go, ducatos 12, carlinos go'' etc.

It is scarcely credible that Leo X. should have
been so imprudent as to print this book of rates or
indulgences in 15 14, which, however, we are assured
he did ; at the same time it must be considered that

300 Philosophical

no spark had then appeared of that conflagration,
kindled afterwards by the reformers; and that the
court of Rome reposed impHcitly upon the creduhty
of the people, and neglected to throw even the
slightest veil over its impositions. The public sale
of indulgences, which soon followed, shows that that
court took no precaution whatever to conceal its
gross abominations from the various nations which
had been so long accustomed to them. When the
complaints against the abuses of the Romish church
burst forth, it did all in its power to suppress this
pubHcation, but all was in vain.

If I may give my opinion upon this book of
rates, I must say that I do not believe the editions
of it are genuine ; the rates are not in any kind of
proportion and do not at all coincide with those
stated by d'Aubigne, the grandfather of Madame de
Maintenon, in the confession of de Sancy. Depriving
a woman of her virginity is estimated at six gros,
and committing incest with a mother or a sister, at
five gros. This is evidently ridiculous. I think
that there really was a system of rates or taxes es-
tablished for those who went to Rome to obtain ab-
solution or purchase dispensations, but that the ene-
mies of the Holy See added largely, in order to
increase the odium against it. Consult Bayle, under
the articles on "Bank," "Dupinet," "Drelincourt."

It is at least positively certain that these rates
were never authorized by any council; that they
constituted an enormous abuse, invented by avarice.

Dictionary. 301

and respected by those who were interested in its
not being abolished. The sellers and the purchasers
eqvially found their account in it; and accordingly
none opposed it before the breaking out of the dis-
turbances attending the Reformation. It must be
acknowledged that an exact list of all these rates or
taxes would be eminently useful in the formation
of a history of the human mind.

EXTREME.

We will here attempt to draw from the word
"extreme" an idea that may be attended with some
utility.

It is every day disputed whether in war success
is ascribable to conduct or to fortune.

Whether in diseases, nature or medicine is mosi
operative in healing or destroying.

Whether in law it is not judicious for a man td
compromise, although he is in the right, and to de-
fend a cause although he is in the wrong.

Whether the fine arts contribute to the glory or
to the decline of a state.

Whether it is wise or injudicious to encourage
superstition in a people.

Whether there is any truth in metaphysics, his-
tory, or morals.

Whether taste is arbitrary, and whether there i?
in reality a good and a bad taste.

In order to decide at once all these questions.

302 Philosophical

take an advantage of the extreme cases under each,
compare these two extremes, and you will imme-
diately discover the truth.

You wish to know whether success in war can be
infallibly decided by conduct; consider the most
extreme case, the most opposed situations in which
conduct alone will infallibly triumph. The hostile
army must necessarily pass through a deep moun-
tain gorge ; your commander knows this circum-
stance; he makes a forced march, gets possession
of the heights, and completely encloses the enemy
in the defile; there they must either perish or sur-
render. In this extreme case fortune can have no
share in the victory. It is demonstrable, therefore,
that skill may decide the success of a campaign,
and it hence necessarily follows that war is an art.

Afterwards imagine an advantageous but not a
decisive position ; success is not certain, but it is
exceedingly probable. And thus, from one grada-
tion to another, you arrive at what may be consid-
ered a perfect equality between the two armies.
Who shall then decide? Fortune; that is, some
unexpected circumstance or event ; the death of a
general officer going to execute some important
order ; the derangement of a division in consequence
of a false report, the operation of sudden panic, or
various other causes for which prudence can find
no remedy; yet it is still always certain that there
is an art, that there is a science in war.

The same must be observed concerning medicine ;

Dictionary. 303

the art of operating with the head or hand to pre-
serve the life which appears hkely to be lost.

The first who applied bleeding as speedily as pos-
sible to a patient under apoplexy ; the first who con-
ceived the idea of plunging a bistoury into the
bladder to extract the stone from it, and of closing
up the wound ; the first who found out the method
of stopping gangrene in any part of the human
frame, were undoubtedly men almost divine, and
totally unlike the physicians of Moliere.

Descend from this strong and decisive example
to cases less striking and more equivocal ; you per-
ceive fevers and various other maladies cured with-
out its being possible to ascertain whether this is
done by the physician or by nature ; you perceive
diseases, the issue of which cannot be judged ;
various physicians are mistaken in their opinions
of the seat or nature of them ; he who has the
acutest genius, the keenest eye, develops the char-
acter of the complaint. There is then an art in med-
icine, and the man of superior mind is acquainted
with its niceties. Thus it was that La Peyronie dis-
covered that one of the courtiers had swallowed a
sharp bone, which had occasioned an ulcer and en-
dangered his life ; and thus also did Boerhaave dis-
cover the complaint, as unknown as it was dreadful,
of a countess of Wassenaer. There is, therefore,
it cannot be doubted, an art in medicine, but in every
art there are Virgils and Maeviuses.

In jurisprudence, take a case that is clear, in

304 Philosophical

which the law pronounces decisively; a bill of ex-
change correctly drawn and regularly accepted ; the
acceptor is bound to pay it in every country in the
world. There is, therefore, a useful jurisprudence,
although in innumerable cases sentences are arbi-
trary, because, to the misery of mankind, the laws
are ill-framed.

Would you wish to know whether the fine arts
are beneficial to a nation? Compare the two ex-
tremes : Cicero and a perfect ignoramus. Decide
whether the fall of Rome was owing to Pliny or to
Attila.

It is asked whether we should encourage super-
stition in the people. Consider for a moment what
is the greatest extreme on this baleful subject, the
massacre of St. Bartholomew, the massacres of Ire-
land, or the Crusades ; and the question is decided.

Is there any truth in metaphysics? Advert to
those points which are most striking and true.
Something exists ; something, therefore, has existed
from all eternity. An eternal being exists of him-
self; this being cannot be either wicked or incon-
sistent. To these truths we must yield; almost
all the rest is open to disputation, and the clearest
understanding discovers the truth.

It is in everything else as it is in colors ; bad
eyes can distinguish between black and white ; better
eyes, and eyes much exercised, can distinguish every
nicer gradation : "Usque adeo quod tangit idem est,
tainen ultima distant."

Dictionary. 305

EZEKIEL.

Of Some Singular Passages in This Prophet, and
of Certain Ancient Usages.

It is well known that we ought not to judge of
ancient usages b}'^ modern ones ; he that would re-
form the court of Alcinous in the "Odyssey," upon
the model of the Grand Turk, or Louis XIV., would
not meet with a very gentle reception from the
learned; he who is disposed to reprehend Virgil
for having described King Evander covered with
a bear's skin and accompanied by two dogs at the
introduction of ambassadors, is a contemptible critic.

The manners of the ancient Egyptians and Jews
are still more different from ours than those of
King Alcinous, his daughter Nausicaa, and the
worthy Evander. Ezekiel, when in slavery among
the Chaldaeans, had a vision near the small river
Chobar, which falls into the Euphrates.

We ought not to be in the least astonished at his
having seen animals with four faces, four wings,
and with calves' feet ; or wheels revolving without
aid and "instinct with life" ; these images are pleas-
ing to the imagination ; but many critics have been
shocked at the order given him by the Lord to eat,
for a period of three hundred and ninety days, bread
made of barley, wheat, or millet, covered with,
human ordure.

The prophet exclaimed in strong disgust, "My

soul has not hitherto been polluted" ; and the Lord
Vol. 8—20

3o6 Philosophical

replied, "Well, I will allow you instead of man's
ordure to use that of the cow, and with the latter
you shall knead your bread."

As it is now unusual to eat a preparation of bread
of this description, the greater number of men regard
the order in question as unworthy of the Divine
Majesty. Yet it must be admitted that cow-dung
and all the diamonds of the great Mogul are per-
fectly equal, not only in the eyes of a Divine Being,
but in those of a true philosopher ; and, with regard
to the reasons which God might have for order-
ing the prophet this repast, we have no right to in-
quire into them. It is enough for us to see that
commands which appear to us very strange, did not
appear so to the Jews.

It must be admitted that the synagogue, in the
time of St. Jerome, did not suffer "Ezekiel" to be
read before the age of thirty ; but this was because,
in the eighteenth chapter, he says that the son shall
not bear the iniquity of his father, and it shall not be
any longer said the fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children's teeth are set on edge.

This expression was considered in direct contra-
diction to Moses, who. in the twenty-eighth chapter
of "Numbers," declares that the children bear the
iniquity of the fathers, even to the third and fourth
generation.

Ezekiel, again, in the twentieth chapter, makes
the Lord say that He has given to the Jews precepts
which are not good. Such are the reasons for which

Dictionary. 307

the synagogue forbade young people reading
an author likely to raise doubts on the irrefragability
of the laws of Moses.

The censorious critics of the present day are
still more astonished with the sixteenth chapter of
Ezekiel. In that chapter he thus takes it upon him
to expose the crimes of the city of Jerusalem. He
introduces the Lord speaking to a young woman ;
and the Lord said to her, "When thou wast born,
thy navel string was not cut, thou wast not salted,
thou wast quite naked, I had pity on thee ; thou
didst increase in stature, thy breasts were fashioned,
ihy hair was grown, I passed by thee, I observed
thee, I knew that the time of lovers was come, I cov-
ered thy shame, I spread my skirt over thee; thou
becamest mine; I washed and perfumed thee, and
dressed and shod thee well ; I gave thee a scarf of
linen, and bracelets, and a chain for thy neck ; I
placed a jewel in thy nose, pendants in thy ears, and
a crown upon thy head."

"Then, confiding in thy beauty, thou didst in the
height of thy renown, play the harlot with every
passer-by .... And thou hast built a high place of
profanation .... and thou hast prostituted thy-
self in public places, and opened thy feet to every
one that passed .... and thou hast committed
fornication with the Egyptians .... and finally
thou hast paid thy lovers and made them presents,
that they might lie with thee .... and by hiring
them, instead of being hired, thou hast done differ-

3o8 Philosophical

ently from other harlots The proverb is, as

is the mother, so is the daughter, and that proverb
is used of thee," etc.

Still more are they exasperated on the subject oi
the twenty-third chapter. A mother had two daugh-
ters, who early lost their virginity. The elder was
called Ahola, and the younger Aholibah ....
"Aholah committed fornication with young lords
and captains, and lay with the Egyptians from her
early youth .... Aholibah, her sister, committed
still greater fornication with officers and rulers and
well-made cavaliers ; she discovered her shame, she
multiplied her fornications, she sought eagerly for
the embraces of those whose flesh was as that of
asses, and whose issue was as that of horses."

These descriptions, which so madden weak
minds, signify, in fact, no more than the iniquities
of Jerusalem and Samaria; these expressions,
which appear to us licentious, were not so then. The
same vivacity is displayed in many other parts of
Scripture without the slightest apprehension. Open-
ing the womb is very frequently mentioned. The
terms made use of to express the union of Boaz
with Ruth, and of Judah with his daughter-in-law,
are not indelicate in the Hebrew language, but
would be so in our own.

People who are not ashamed of nakedness, never
cover it with a veil. In the times under consider-
ation, no blush could have been raised by the men-
tion of particular parts of the frame of man, as they

Dictionary. 309

were actually touched by the person who bound
himself by any promise to another ; it was a mark of
respect, a symbol of fidelity, as formerly among our-
selves, feudal lords put their hands between those of
their sovereign.

We have translated the term adverted to by the
word "thigh." Eliezer puts his hand under Abra-
ham's thigh. Joseph puts his hand under the thigh
of Jacob. This custom was very ancient in Egypt.
The Eg>'ptians were so far from attaching any dis-
grace to what we are desirous as much as possible
to conceal and avoid the mention of, that they bore
in procession a large and characteristic image, called
Phallus, in order to thank the gods for making the
human frame so instrumental in the perpetuation of
the human species.

All this affords sufficient proof that our sense of
decorum and propriety is different from that of
other nations. When do the Romans appear to have
been more polished than in the time of Augustus?
Yet Horace scruples not to say, in one of his moral
pieces : ^'Nec metuo, ne diim ftituo vir riire recur-
rat." (Satire II., book i., v. 127.) Augustus uses
the same expression in an epigram on Fulvia.

The man who should among us pronounce the
expression in our language corresponding to it,
would be regarded as a drunken porter ; that word,
as well as various others used by Horace and other
authors, appears to us even more indecent than the
expressions of Ezekiel. Let us then do away with

3IO Philosopnical

our prejudices when we read ancient authors, or
travel among distant nations. Nature is the same
everywhere, and usages are everywhere different.

I once met at Amsterdam a rabbi quite brimful
of this chapter. "Ah ! my friend," says he, "how
very much we are obHged to you. You have dis-
played all the sublimity of the Mosaic law, Ezekiel's
breakfast; his delightful left-sided attitudes; Aho-
lah and Aholibah are admirable things ; they are
t}pes, my brother — types which show that one day
the Jewish people will be masters of the whole
world ; but why did you admit so many others which
are nearly of equal strength ? Why did not you rep-
resent the Lord saying to the sage Hosea, in the
second verse of the first chapter, 'Hosea, take to
thyself a harlot, and make to her the children of a
harlot?' Such are the very words. Hosea takes
the young woman and has a son by her, and after-
wards a daughter, and then again a son ; and it was
a type, and that type lasted three years. That is not
all ; the Lord says in the third chapter, 'Go and take
to thyself a woman who is not merely a harlot, but
an adulteress.' Hosea obeyed, but it cost him fif-
teen crowns and eighteen bushels of barley ; for,
you know, there was very little wheat in the land of
promise — but are you aware of the meaning of all
this?" "No," said I to him. "Nor I neither," said
the rabbi.

A grave person then advanced towards us and
said they were ingenious fictions and abounding in

Dictionary. 311

exquisite beauty. "Ah, sir," remarked a young man,
"if you are inclined for fictions, give the preference
to those of Homer, Virgil, and Ovid." He who
prefers the prophecies of Ezekiel deserves to break-
fast with him.

FABLE.

It is very likely that the more ancient fables, m
the style of those attributed to ^Esop, were invented
by the first subjugated people. Free men would
not have had occasion to disguise the truth ; a tyrant
can scarcely be spoken to except in parables ; and at
present, even this is a dangerous liberty.

It might also very well happen that men naturally
liking images and tales, ingenious persons amused
themselves with composing them, without any other
motive. However that may be, fable is more ancient
than history.

Among the Jews, who are quite a modern people
in comparison with the Chaldaeans and Tyrians,
their neighbors, but very ancient by their own ac-
counts, fables similar to those of ^^sop existed in
the time of the Judges, 1233 years before our era,
if we may depend upon received computations.

It is said in the Book of Judges that Gideon had
seventy sons born of his many wives ; and that, by
a concubine, he had another son named Abimelech.

Now, this Abimelech slew sixty-nine of his
brethren upon one stone, according to Jewish cus-
tom, and in consequence the Jews, full of respect

312 Philosophical

and admiration, went to crown him king, under an
oak near Millo, a city which is but little known in
history.

Jotham alone, the youngest of the brothers, es-
caped the carnage — as it ahvays happens in ancient
histories — and harangued the Israelites, telling them
that the trees went one day to choose a king; we
do not well see how they could march, but if they
were able to speak, they might just as well be able
to walk. They first addressed themselves to the
olive, saying, "Reign thou over us." The olive re-
plied, "I will not quit the care of my oil to be pro-
moted over you." The fig-tree said that he liked
his figs better than the trouble of the supreme power.
The vine gave the preference to its grapes. At last
the trees addressed themselves to the bramble, which
answered : 'Tf in truth ye anoint one king over you,
then come and put your trust in my shadow ; and
if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour
the cedars of Lebanon."

It is true that this fable falsifies throughout, be-
cause fire cannot come from a bramble, but it shows
the antiquity of the use of fables.

That of the belly and the members, which calmed
a tumult in Rome about two thousand three hun-
dred years ago, is ingenious and without fault. The
more ancient the fables the more allegorical they
were.

Is not the ancient fable of Venus, as related by
Hesiod, entirely a fable of nature? This Venus

Dictionary. 313

is the goddess of beauty. Beauty ceases to be lovely
if unaccompanied by the graces. Beauty produces
love. Love has features which pierce all hearts;
he wears a bandage, which conceals the faults of
those beloved. He has wings ; he comes quickly
and flies away the same.

Wisdom is conceived in the brain of the chief of
the gods, under the name of Minerva. The soul of
man is a divine fire, which Minerva shows to Prome-
theus, who makes use of this divine fire to animate
mankind.

It is impossible, in these fables, not to recognize a
lively picture of pure nature. Most other fables
are either corruptions of ancient histories or the
caprices of the imagination. It is with ancient fables
as with our modern tales ; some convey charming
morals, and others very insipid ones.

The ingenious fables of the ancients have been
grossly imitated by an unenlightened race — witness
those of Bacchus, Hercules, Prometheus, Pandora,
and many others, which were the amusement of the
ancient world. The barbarians, who confusedly
heard them spoken of, adopted them into their own
savage mythology, and afterwards it is pretended
that they invented them. Alas ! poor unknown and
ignorant people, who knew no art either useful or
agreeable — to whom even the name of geometry was
unknown — dare you say that you have invented
anything? You have not known either how to dis-
cover truth, or to lie adroitly.

314 Philosophical

The most elegant Greek fable was that of Psyche ;
the most pleasant, that of the Ephesian matron. The
prettiest among the moderns is that of Folly, who,
having" put out Love's eyes, is condemned to be his
guide.

The fables attributed to iEsop are all emblems;
instructions to the weak, to guard them as much as
possible against the snares of the strong. All na-
tions, possessing a little wisdom, have adopted
them. La Fontaine has treated them with the most
elegance. About eighty of them are masterpieces
of simplicity, grace, finesse, and sometimes even of
poetry. It is one of the advantages of the age of
Louis XIV. to have produced a La Fontaine. He
has so well discovered, almost without seeking it, the
art of making one read, that he has had a greater rep-
utation in France than genius itself.

Boileau has never reckoned him among those
who did honor to the great age of Louis XIV. ; his
reason or his pretext was that he had never invented
anything. What will better bear out Boileau is the
great number of errors in language and the incor-
rectness of style ; faults which La Fontaine might
have avoided, and which this severe critic could not
pardon. His grasshopper, for instance, having
sung all the summer, went to beg from the ant,
her neighbor, in the winter, telling her, on the word
of an animal, that she would pay her principal and
interest before midsummer. The ant replies : "You
sang, did you ? I am glad of it ; then now dance."

Dictionary. 315

His astrologer, again, who falling into a ditch
while gazing at the stars, was asked: "Poor
wretch ! do you expect to be able to read things so
much above you?" Yet Copernicus, Galileo, Cas-
sini, and Halley have read the heavens very well ;
and the best astronomer that ever existed might
fall into a ditch without being a poor wretch.

Judicial astrology is indeed ridiculous charlatan-
ism, but the ridiculousness does not consist in re-
garding the heavens ; it consists in believing, or in
making believe, that you read what is not there.
Several of these fables, either ill chosen or badly
written, certainly merit the censure of Boileau.

Nothing is more insipid than the fable of the
drowned woman, whose corpse was sought contrary
to the course of the river, because in her lifetime she
had always been contrary.

The tribute sent by the animals to King Alex-
ander is a fable, which is not the better for being
ancient. The animals sent no money, neither did
the lion advise them to steal it.

The satyr who received a peasant into his hut
should not have turned him out on seeing that he
blew his fingers because he was cold ; and after-
wards, on taking the dish between his teeth, that he
blew his pottage because it was hot. The man was
quite right, and the satyr was a fool. Besides, we
do not take hold of dishes with our teeth.

The crab-mother, who reproached her daughter
with not walking straight ; and the daughter, who

3 1 6 Philosophical

answered that her mother walked crooked, is not an
agreeable fable.

The bush and the duck, in commercial partner-
ship with the bat, having counters, factors, agents,
paying principal and interest, etc., has neither truth,
nature, nor any kind of merit.

A bush which goes with a bat into foreign coun-
tries to trade is one of those cold and unnatural in-
ventions which La Fontaine should not have
adopted. A house full of dogs and cats, living to-
gether like cousins and quarrelling for a dish of pot-
tage, seems also very unworthy of a man of taste.

The chattering magpie is still worse. The eagle
tells her that he declines her company because she
talks too much. On which La Fontaine remarks
that it is necessary at court to wear two faces.

Where is the merit of the fable of the kite pre-
sented by a bird-catcher to a king, whose nose he
had seized with his claws? The ape who married
a Parisian girl and beat her is an unfortunate story
presented to La Fontaine, and which he has been so
unfortunate as to put into verse.

Such fables as these, and some others, may doubt-
less justify Boileau; it might even happen that La
Fontaine could not distinguish the bad fables from
the good.

Madame de la Sabliere called La Fontaine a
fabulist, who bore fables as naturally as a plum-tree
bears plums. It is true that he had only one style,
and that he wrote an opera in the style of his fables.

Dictionary. 317

Notwithstanding all this, Boileau should have
rendered justice to the singular merit of the good
man, as he calls him, and to the public, who are right
in being enchanted with the style of many of his
fables.

La Fontaine was not an original or a sublime
writer, a man of established taste, or one of the first
geniuses of a brilliant era ; and it is a very remark-
able fault in him that he speaks not his own lan-
guage correctly. He is in this respect very inferior to
Phsedrus, but he was a man unique in the excellent
pieces that he has left us. They are very numerous,
and are in the mouths of all those who have been
respectably brought up ; they contribute even to
their education. They will descend to posterity ;
they are adapted for all men and for all times, while
those of Boileau suit only men of letters.

Of Those Fanatics Who Would Suppress the An-
cient Fables.

There is among those whom we call Jansenists
a little sect of hard and empty heads, who would
suppress the beautiful fables of antiquity, to substi-
tute St. Prosper in the place of Ovid, and Santeuil
in that of Horace. If they were attended to, our
pictures would no longer represent Iris on the rain-
bow, or Minerva with her aegis ; but instead of them,
we should have Nicholas and Arnauld fighting
against the Jesuits and Protestants ; Mademoiselle
Perrier cured of sore eyes by a thorn from the crown

3 1 8 Philosophical

of Jesus Christ, brought from Jerusalem to Port
Royal; Counsellor Carre de Montgeron presenting
the account of St. Medard to Louis XV. ; and St.
Ovid resuscitating little boys.

In the eyes of these austere sages, Fenelon was
only an idolater, who, following the example of the
impious poem of the "^neid," introduced the child
Cupid with the nymph Eucharis.

Pluche, at the end of his fable of the Heavens, en-
titled "Their History," Wi-ites a long dissertation to
prove that it is shamef j1 to have tapestry worked
in figures taken froru, Ovid's "Metamorphoses" ;
and that Zephyrus and Flora, Vertumnus and Po-
mona, should be banished from the gardens of Ver-
sailles. He exhorts the school of belles-lettres to
oppose itself to this bad taste ; which reform alone,
he says, is capable of re-establishing the belles-
lettres.

Other puritans, more severe than sage a little time
ago, would have proscribed the ancient mythology
as a collection of puerile tales, unworthy the ac-
knowledged gravity of our manners. It would,
however, be a pity to burn Ovid, Horace, Hesiod,
our fine tapestry pictures and our opera. If we
were spared the familiar stories of xEsop, why lay
hands on those sublime fables, which have been re-
spected by mankind, whom they have instructed?
They are mingled with many insipidities, no doubt,
but what good is without an alloy? All ages will
adopt Pandora's box, at the bottom of which was

Dictionary. 319

found man's only consolation — hope ; Jupiter's two
vessels, which unceasingly poured forth good and
evil ; the cloud embraced by Ixion, which is the
emblem and punishment of an ambitious man ; and
the death of Narcissus, which is the punishment of
self-love. What is more sublime than the image
of Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, formed in the
head of the master of the gods ? What is more true
and agreeable than the goddess of beauty, always
accompanied by the graces? The goddesses of the
arts, all daughters of memory — do they not teach us,
as well as Locke, that without memory we cannot
possess either judgment or wit? The arrows of
Love, his fillet, and his childhood ; Flora, caressed
by Zephyrus, etc. — are they not all sensible person-
ifications of pure nature? These fables have sur-
vived the religions which consecrated them. The
temples of the gods of Egypt, Greece, and Rome
are no more, but Ovid still exists. Objects of
credulity may be destroyed, but not those of pleas-
ure ; we shall forever love these true and lively
images. Lucretius did not believe in these fabulous
gods, but he celebrated nature under the name of
Venus.

Alma Venus cceli subter labentia signa
QucE mare navigerwn, quce terras frugiferentes
ConcelebraStper te quoniam genus omtie animantum
Concipitur, visitque exorttvn livnina solis, etc.

Kind Venus, glory of the blest abodes,
Parent of Rome, and joy of men and gods;
Delight of all, comfort of sea and earth,
To whose kind power all creatures owe their birth, etc.

—Creech.

320 Philosophical

If antiquity in its obscurity was led to acknowl-
edge divinity in its images, how is it to be blamed?
The productive soul of the world was adored by the
sages ; it governed the sea under the name of Nep-
tune, the air under the image of Juno, and the coun-
try under tliat of Pan. It was the divinity of armies
under the name of Mars ; all these attributes were
animated personifications. Jupiter was the only
god. The golden chain with which he bound the
inferior gods and men was a striking image of the
unity of a sovereign being. The people were de-
ceived, but what are the people to us ?

It is continually asked why the Greek and Roman
magistrates permitted the divinities whom they
adored in their temples to be ridiculed on their stage?
This is a false supposition. The gods were not
mocked in their theatres, but the folHes attributed to
these gods by those who had corrupted the ancient
mythology. The consuls and praetors found it good
to treat the adventure of the two Sosias wittily, but
they would not have suffered the worship of
Jupiter and Mercury to be attacked before the
people. It is thus that a thousand things which ap-
pear contradictory are not so in reahty. I have
seen, in the theatre of a learned and witty nation,
pieces taken from the Golden Legend ; will it, on
that account, be said that this nation permits its ob-
jects of religion to be insulted? It need not be
feared we shall become Pagans for having heard
the opera of Proserpine at Paris, or for having seen

Dictionary. 321

the nuptials of Psyche, painted by Raphael, in the
pope's palace at Rome. Fable forms the taste, but
renders no person idolatrous.

The beautiful fables of antiquity have also this
great advantage over history : they are lessons of
virtue, while almost all history narrates the success
of vice. Jupiter in the fable descends upon earth
to punish Tantalus and Lycaon ; but in history our
Tantaluses and Lycaons are the gods of the earth.
Baucis and Philemon had their cabin changed into
a temple; our Baucises and Philemons are obliged
to sell, for the collector of the taxes, those kettles
which, in Ovid, the gods changed into vases of gold.

I know how much history can instruct us and
how necessary it is to know it ; but it requires much
ingenuity to be able to draw , from it any rules for
individual conduct. Those who know politics only
through books wall be often reminded of those lines
of Corneille, which observe that examples will sel-
dom suffice for our guidance, as it often happens
that one person perishes by the very expedient
which has proved the salvation of another.

Les exemples recens suffiraient pour v{ instruire
Si par r exe7nple seitl on devait se conduire;
Mais souvent Pun se perd oil V autre s'est sauvd,
Et par oil run perit, tin autre est conserve.

Henry VIII., the tyrant of his parliament, his

ministers and his wives, of consciences and purses,

lived and died peaceably. Charles I. perished on the

scaffold. Margaret of Anjou in vain waged war in

person a dozen times with the English, the subjects
Vol. 8—21

321 Philosophical

of her husband, while Wilham III. drove James II.
from England without a battle. In our days we
have seen the royal family of Persia murdered, and
strangers upon the throne.

To look at events only, history seems to accuse
Providence, and fine moral fables justify it. It is
clear that both the useful and agreeable may be
discovered in them, however exclaimed against by
those who are neither the one nor the other. Let
them talk on, and let us read Homer and Ovid, as
well as Titus Livius and Rapin de Thoyras. Taste
induces preferences and fanaticism exclusions. The
arts are united, and those who would separate them
know nothing about them. History teaches us what
we are — fable what we ought to be.

Tous les arts sotit amis, ainsi qu its sont divins;

Qui veut les separer est loin de les connaltre.
Vhistoire nous apprend ce que sont les humains.

La fable ce qu its doivent etre.

FACTION.

On the Meaning of the Word.

The word "faction" comes from the Latin
"facere" ; it is employed to signify the state of a
soldier at his post, on duty {en faction), squadrons
or troops of combatants in the circus ; green, blue,
red, and white factions.

The acceptation in which the term is generally
used is that of a seditious party in the state. The
term "party" in itself implies nothing that is odious,
that of faction is always odious.

Dictionary. 323

A great man, and even a man possessing only
mediocrity of talent, may easily have a party at
court, in the army, in the city, or in literature. A
man may have a party in consequence of his merit, in
consequence of the zeal and number of his friends,
without being the head of a party. Marshal Catinat,
although little regarded at court, had a large party
in the army without making any effort to obtain it.

A head of a party is always a head of a faction ;
such were Cardinal Retz, H€nry, duke of Guise, and
various others. A seditious party, while it is yet
w^ak and has no influence in the government, is
only a faction.

Caesar's faction speedily became a dominant
party, which swallowed up the republic. When the
emperor Charles VI. disputed the throne of Spain
with Philip V. he had a party in that kingdom, and
at length he had no more than a faction in it. Yet
we may always be allowed to talk of the "party" of
Charles VI.

It is different with respect to private persons.
Descartes for a long time had a party in France ; it
would be incorrect to say he had a faction. Thus
we perceive that words in many cases synonymous
cease to be so in others.

FACULTY.

All the powers of matter and mind are facul-
ties ; and, what is still worse, faculties of which we

j44 Philosophical

know nothing, perfectly occult qualities; to begin
with motion, of which no one has discovered the
origin.

When the president of the faculty of medicine in
the "Malade Imaginaire," asks Thomas Diafoirus:
"Quare opium facit dormiref" — Why does opium
cause sleep? Thomas very pertinently replies^
"Quia est in eo virtus dormitiva quce facit sopire'*
— Because it possesses a dormitive power producing
sleep. The greatest philosophers cannot speak more
to the purpose*

The honest chevalier de Jaucourt acknowledges,
under the article on "Sleep," that it is impossible to
go beyond conjecture with respect to the cause of
it. Another Thomas, and in much higher reverence
than his bachelor namesake in the comedy, has, in
fact, made no other reply to all the questions which
are started throughout his immense volumes.

It is said, under the article on "Faculty," in the
grand "Encyclopaedia," "that the vital faculty once
established in the intelligent principle by which we
are animated, it may be easily conceived that the
faculty, stimulated by the expressions which the
vital sensorium transmits to part of the common sen^
sorium, determines the alternate influx of the nerv-
ous fluid into the fibres which move the vital or-
gans in order to produce the alternate contradiction
of those organs."

This amounts precisely to the answer of the
young physician Thomas: ''Quia est in eo virtus

Dictionary. 325

ctkerniva qucs facit alternare." And Thomas Dia-
foirus has at least the merit of being shortest.

The faculty of moving the foot when we wish
to do so, of recalling to mind past events, or of ex-
ercising our five senses; in short, any and all of
our faculties will admit of no further or better ex-
planation than that of Diafoirus.

But consider thought ! say those who understand
the whole secret. Thought, which distinguishes man
from all animals besides: "Sanctius his animal,
mentisqiie capacius altcB." (Ovid's Metamorph.
i. 76.) — More holy man, of more exalted mind!

As holy as you like; it is on this subject, that of
thought or mind, that Diafoirus is more triumphant
than ever. All would reply in accordance with him :
"Quia est in eo virtus pensativa qua facit pensare."
No one will ever develop the mysterious process by
which he thinks.

The case we are considering then might be ex-
tended to everything in nature. I know not whether
there may not be found in this profound and un-
fathomable gulf of mystery an evidence of the exist-
ence of a Supreme Being. There is a secret in the
originating or conservatory principles of all beings,
from a pebble on the seashore to Saturn's Ring and
the Milky Way. But how can there be a secret
which no one knows? It would seem that some
being must exist who can develop all.

Some learned men, with a view to enlighten our
ignorance, tell us that we must form systems; that

^iS Philosophical

we shall at last find the secret out. But we have so
long sought without obtaining any explanation that
disgust against further search has very naturally
succeeded. That, say they, is the mere indolence of
philosophy ; no, it is the rational repose of men who
have exerted themselves and run an active race in
vain. And after all, it must be admitted that indo-
lent philosophy is far preferable to turbulent divinity
and metaphysical delusion.

FAITH.

SECTION I.

What is faith ? Is it to believe that which is
evident? No. It is perfectly evident to my mind
that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and
intelligent being. This is no matter of faith, but
of reason. I have no merit in thinking that this
eternal and infinite being, whom I consider as vir-
tue, as goodness itself, is desirous that I should be
good and virtuous. Faith consists in believing not
what seems true, but what seems false to our under-
standing. The Asiatics can only by faith believe
the journey of Mahomet to the seven planets, and
the incarnations of the god Fo, of Vishnu, Xaca,
Brahma, and Sommonocodom. They submit their
understandings ; they tremble to examine : wishing
to avoid being either impaled or burned, they say :
"I believe."

We do not here intend the slightest allusion to
the Catholic faith. Not only do we revere it, but

Dictionary. 327

1^'e possess it. We speak of the false, lying faith of
other nations of the world, of that faith which is not
faith, and which consists only in words.

There is a faith for things that are merely aston-
ishing and prodigious, and a faith for things contra-
dictory and impossible.

Vishnu became incarnate five hundred times;
this is extremely astonishing, but it is not, however,
physically impossible ; for if Vishnu possessed a
soul, he may have transferred that soul into five hun-
dred different bodies, with a view to his own felicity.
The Indian, indeed, has not a very lively faith ; he
is not intimately and decidedly persuaded of these
metamorphoses ; but he will nevertheless say to his
bonze, "I have faith; it is your will and pleasure
that Vishnu has undergone five hundred incarna-
tions, which is worth to you an income of five hun-
dred rupees : very well ; you will inveigh against
me, and denounce me, and ruin my trade if I have
not faith ; but I have faith, and here are ten rupees
over and above for you." The Indian may swear to
the bonze that he believes without taking a false
oath, for, after all, there is no demonstration that
Vishnu has not actually made five hundred visits to
India.

But if the bonze requires him to believe what is
contradictory or impossible, as that two and two
make five, or that the same body may be in a thou-
sand different places, or that to be and not to be are
precisely one and the same thing ; in that case, if

3^8 Philosophical

the Indian says he has faith he lies, and if he swears
that he believes he commits perjury. He says, there-
fore, to the bonze: "My reverend father, I cannot
declare that I believe in these absurdities, even
though they should be worth to you an income of
ten thousand rupees instead of five hundred."

"My son," the bonze answers, "give me twenty
rupees and God will give you grace to believe all
that you now do not believe."

"But how can you expect or desire," rejoins the
Indian, "that God should do that by me which He
cannot do even by Himself? It is impossible that
God should either perform or believe contradictions,
I am very willing to say, in order to give you satis-
faction, that I believe what is obscure, but I cannot
say that I believe what is impossible. It is the will
of God that we should be virtuous, and not that we
should be absurd. I have already given you ten ru-
pees ; here are twenty more ; believe in thirty ru-
pees ; be an honest man if you can and do not trou-
ble me any more."

It is not thus with Christians. The faith which
they have for things which they do not understand
is founded upon that which they do understand ;
they have grounds of credibility. Jesus Christ per-
formed miracles in Galilee ; we ought, therefore, to
believe all that He said. In order to know what He
said we must consult the Church. The Church has
declared the books which announce Jesus Christ to
us to be authentic. We ought, therefore, to believe

Dictionary. 329

those books. Those books inform us that he who
will not listen to the Church shall be considered as
a tax-gatherer or a Pagan ; we ought, therefore, to
listen to the Church that we may not be disgraced
and hated like the farmers-general. We ought to
submit our reason to it, not with infantile and blind
credulity, but with a docile faith, such as reason it-
self would authorize. Such is Christian faith, par-
ticularly the Roman faith, which is "the faith" par
excellence. The Lutheran, Calvinistic, or Anglican
faith is a wicked faith.

SECTION II.

Divine faith, about which so much has been writ-
ten, is evidently nothing more than incredulity
brought under subjection, for we certainly have no
other faculty than the understanding by which we
can believe; and the objects of faith are not those
of the understanding. We can believe only what
appears to be true; and nothing can appear true
but in one of the three following ways : by intuition
or feeling, as I exist, I see the sun ; by an accumu-
lation of probability amounting to certainty, as there
is a city called Constantinople ; or by positive dem-
onstration, as triangles of the same base and height
are equal.

Faith, therefore, being nothing at all of this de-
scription, can no more be a belief, a persuasion, than
it can be yellow or red. It can be nothing but the
annihilation of reason, a silence of adoration at the

330 Philosophical

contemplation of things absolutely incomprehensi-
ble. Thus, speaking philosophically, no person be-
lieves the Trinity ; no person believes that the same
body can be in a thousand places at once ; and he
w^ho says, I believe these mysteries, will see, be-
yond the possibility of a doubt, if he reflects for a
moment on what passes in his mind, that these
words mean no more than, I respect these mysteries ;
I submit myself to those who announce them. For
they agree with me, that my reason, or their own
reason, believe them not; but it is clear that if my
reason is not persuaded, / am not persuaded. I and
my reason cannot possibly be two different beings.
It is an absolute contradiction that I should receive
that as true which my understanding rejects as false.
Faith, therefore, is nothing but submissive or defer-
ential incredulity.

But why should this submission be exercised
when my understanding invincibly recoils? The
reason, we well know, is, that my understanding has
been persuaded that the mysteries of my faith are
laid down by God Himself. All, then, that I can do,
as a reasonable being, is to be silent and adore. This
is what divines call external faith ; and this faith
neither is, nor can be, anything more than respect
for things incomprehensible, in consequence of the
reliance I place on those who teach them.

If God Himself were to say to me, "Thought is
of an olive color" ; "the square of a certain number is
bitter" ; I should certainly understand nothing at

Dictionary. 331

all from these words. I could not adopt them either
as true or false. But I will repeat them, if He com-
mands me to do it; and I will make others repeat
them at the risk of my life. This is not faith; it is
nothing more than obedience.

In order to obtain a foundation then for this obe-
dience, it is merely necessary to examine the books
which require it. Our understanding, therefore,
should investigate the books of the Old and New
Testament, just as it would Plutarch or Livy ; and
if it finds in them incontestable and decisive evi-
dences— evidences obvious to all minds, and such as
would be admitted by men of all nations — that God
Himself is their author, then it is our incumbent
duty to subject our understanding to the yoke of
faith.

SECTION III.

We have long hesitated whether or not to publish
the following article, "Faith," which we met with
in an old book. Our respect for the chair of St.
Peter restrained us. But some pious men having
satisfied us that Alexander VI. and St. Peter had
nothing in common, we have at last determined to
publish this curious little production, and do it with-
out the slightest scruple.

Prince Pico della Mirandola once met Pope Alex-
ander VI. at the house of the courtesan Emilia,
while Lucretia, the holy father's daughter, was con-
fined in childbirth, and the people of Rome were
discussing whether the child of which she was de-

332 Philosophical

livered belonged to the pope, to his son the Duke de
Valentinois, or to Lucretia's husband, Alphonso
of Aragon, who was considered by many as impo-
tent. The conversation immediately became ani-
mated and gay. Cardinal Bembo relates a portion
of it. "My Httle Pico," says the pope, "whom do
you think the father of my grandson?" "I think
your son-in-law," repHed Pico. "What! how can
you possibly believe such nonsense?" "I believe it
by faith." "But surely you know that an impotent
man cannot be a father." "Faith," replied Pico,
"consists in believing things because they are im-
possible ; and, besides, the honor of your house de-
mands that Lucretia's son should not be reputed the
offspring of incest. You require me to believe more
incomprehensible mysteries. Am I not bound to be-
lieve that a serpent spoke; that from that time all
mankind were damned ; that the ass of Balaam also
spoke with great eloquence; and that the walls of
Jericho fell down at the sound of trumpets ?" Pico
thus proceeded with a long train of all the prodig-
ious things in which he believed. Alexander abso-
lutely fell back upon his sofa with laughing. "I be-
lieve all that as well as you," says he, "for I well
know that I can be saved only by faith, as I can cer-
tainly never be so by works." "Ah, holy father!"
says Pico, "you need neither works nor faith ; they
are well enough for such poor, profane creatures as
we are; but you, who are absolutely a vice-god —
you may believe and do just whatever yoii please.

Dictionary. 233

You have the keys of heaven; and St. Peter will

certainly never shut the door in your face. But
with respect to myself, who am nothing but a poor
prince, I freely confess that I should have found
some very powerful protection necessary, if I had
lain with my own daughter, or had employed the
stiletto and night-shade as often as your holiness."
Alexander VI. understood raillery. "Let us speak
seriously," says he to the prince. "Tell me what
merit there can be in a man's saying to God that he
is persuaded of things of which, in fact, he cannot
be persuaded? What pleasure can this afford to
God? Between ourselves, a man who says that he
believes what is impossible to be believed, is — a
liar."

Pico della Mirandola at this crossed himself in
great agitation. "My God!" says he, "I beg your
holiness' pardon ; but you are not a Christian." "I
am not," says the pope, "upon my faith." "I sus-
pected so/' said Pico della Mirandola.

FALSITY.

Falsity, properly speaking, is the contrary to
truth; not intentional lying.

It is said that there were a hundred thousand men
destroyed by the great earthquake at Lisbon; this
is not a lie — it is a falsity. Falsity is much more
common than error ; falsity falls more on facts, and
error on opinions. It is an error to believe that the
sun turns round the earth ; but it is a falsity to ad-

334 Philosophical

vance that Louis XIV. dictated the will of Charles
11.

The falsity of a deed is a much greater crime
than a simple lie; it is a legal imposture — a fraud
committed with the pen.

A man has a false mind when he always takes
things in a wrong sense, when, not considering the
whole, he attributes to one side of an object that
which belongs to the other, and when this defect of
judgment has become habitual.

Falseheartedness is, when a person is accustomed
to flatter, and to utter sentiments which he does not
possess ; this is worse than dissimulation, and is
that which the Latins call simulatio.

There is much falsity in historians ; error among
philosophers. Falsities abound in all polemical writ-
ings, and still more in satirical ones. False minds
are insufferable, and false hearts are horrible.

FALSITY OF HUMAN VIRTUES.

When the Duke de la Rochefoucauld wrote his
"Thoughts on Self-Love," and discovered this great
spring of human action, one M. Esprit of the Ora-
tory, wrote a book entitled "Of the Falsity of Hu-
man Virtues." This author says that there is no
virtue but by grace ; and he terminates each chapter
by referring to Christian charity. So that, accord-
ing to M. Esprit, neither Cato, Aristides, Marcus
Aurelius, nor Epictetus were good men, who can be
found only among the Christians. Among the Chris-

Dictionary. ^^^

tians, again, there is no virtue except among the
CathoHcs ; and even among the Catholics, the Jesuits
must be excepted as the enemies of the Oratory ;
ergo, virtue is scarcely to be found anywhere except
among the enemies of the Jesuits.

This M. Esprit commences by asserting that pru-
dence is not a virtue ; and his reason is that it is
often deceived. It is as if he had said that Caesar
was not a great captain because he was conquered
at Dyrrachium.

If M. Esprit had been a philosopher, he would
not have examined prudence as a virtue, but as a
talent — as a useful and happ)- quality ; for a great
rascal ma}- be very prudent, and I have known many
such. Oh the age of pretending that "Nul n'aura de
vertu que nous et nos amis!" — None are virtuous
but ourself and friends !

What is virtue, my friend ? It is to do good ; let
us then do it, and that will suffice. But we give you
credit for the motive. What, then ! according to
you, there is no difference between the President de
Thou and Ravaillac ? between Cicero and that Popi-
lius whose life he saved, and who afterwards cut off
his head for money ; and thou wilt pronounce Epic-
tetus and Porphyrins rogues because they did not
follow our dogmas? Such insolence is disgusting;
but I will say no more, for I am getthig angrj'.